A YEAR OF REVOLUTIONS. 

WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING 

THE REVOLUTIONARY EVENTS OF 1849. 

TOGETHER WITH 

A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE CAUSES OF 

THE THIRD FRENCH REVOLUTION, 

BY WILLIAM S. "CHASE 







] HARTFORD: 
HENRY E. ROBINS & CO, 

NEW YORK! 
HUNTINGTON & SAVAGE. 

1850. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, 

By HENRY E. ROBINS & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 



f 



F. G. RICHARDS, 

PRINTER. 



CONTENT 



CHAPTER I. 

FRANCE. PA.GB 

The Eve of a Revolution— The Three Days— The Abdi- 
cation and Flight of Louis Philippe »• ...... . 11 

CHAPTER II. 

FRANCE. 

From the Rejection of the Orleans Dynasty to the Open- 
ing of the National Assembly 45 

CHAPTER III. 

FRANCE. 

From the Appointment of the Executive Committee to 

the Insurrection of June 66 

CHAPTER IV. 

FRANCE. 

From the Appointment of General Cavaignac as Presi- 
dent of the Council to the Election of the first Presi- 
dent of the Republic 92 

CHAPTER V. 

ITALY. 

The Constitutions — Austrian Assassinations in Lombardy 116 
CHAPTER VI. 

ITALY. 

The War in Lombardy 128 

CHAPTER VII. 

ITALY. 

The Republic of Venice — Projected Federation of the 
Italian States — Royal Villany in Naples — The War 
between Sicily and Naples — Revolution in Rome .... 143 

CHAPTER VIII. 

GERMANY. 

All the States Revolutionized — The Central Parliament of 

Germany created — Installation of the Regent 165 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

AUSTRIA. PAGE 

The Emperor's first Flight from Vienna — Bohemia — 

Hungary and Croatia 183 

CHAPTER X. 

AUSTRIA. 

The Civil War in Hungary — Murder of Count Lamberg 198 
CHAPTER XL 

AUSTRIA. 

Insurrection and Bombardment of Vienna 210 

CHAPTER XII. 

AUSTRIA. 

Abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand — Principles of the 
new Administration — Invasion of Hungary by the 
Imperial Forces 223 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PRUSSIA. 

From the Convocation of the Constituent Assembly to its 

Dissolution and the Grant of a Constitution 234 

CHAPTER XIV. 

GERMANY. 

The New Empire — Its Pretensions and its Performances 260 
CHAPTER XV. 

DENMARK. 

The War in Schleswig-Holstein 269 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

The Invasion Panic — The Chartist Movements — The 
Irish Rebellion — The Session of Parliament — Com- 
mercial Vicissitudes — Foreign Relations 277 



PREFACE 



The year 1848 was remarkably eventful. To 
this country it brought the termination of our 
war of conquest in Mexico, a change of 
administration which elevated General Taylor 
to the Presidency and the Whig Party to 
power, and, finally, the discovery of the Gold 
Regions in California, a discovery realizing 
dreams of the fabled Dorado of the past, and 
pregnant with mighty consequences for the 
future. 

In Europe, 1848 was emphatically a year of 
Revolutions. " The social and political con- 
vulsions which marked its course, the tottering 
of thrones and dynasties, the irruption of 
armed democracy into the council -chambers of 
kings, the uprisings of oppressed and dormant 
nationalities, and the consequent ruin of the 
cumbrous fabrics raised over them by diplo- 
macy, are incidents of that eventful year, 
which have been watched by contemporary 
spectators with the lively emotions due to such 
vast dramatic spectacles, and to which inquiry 



VI PREFACE. 

will, for many a generation to come, revert as 
to the starting points of current history." 

The foregoing passage is taken from the pre- 
face to Mr. Walter K. Kelly's " History of the 
Year 1848," the work from which, chiefly, the 
present volume is abridged. Mr. Kelly has 
been quite successful in the attempt to depict 
the main features of the period from which his 
book takes its title, and to lay before the reader 
a succinct and digested narrative of its great 
political events and perturbations. " The 
utility of such a retrospect," he says, " if 
executed with due care, fidelity, and discretion, 
will be at once admitted. The most assiduous 
reader of the public journals must often have 
felt himself bewildered by the unparalleled 
multiplicity and complexity of the movements 
recorded by them during the past year, and 
must have confessed the necessity of correcting 
his first vague impressions and questionable 
conclusions by a reconsideration of the m; 
facts from which they were derived." 

The French Revolution properly claim! 
largest space in this work. Although 
event was so sudden and unexpected as to 
seem premature, the explosive forces which 
resulted in it had been long accumulating. 
A condensed account of the causes which 
led to it has been thought appropriate. The 



: main 

as* the 
1 that 



PREFACE. Vll 

Reign of Louis Philippe embraced those 
causes ; and the reader is therefore invited, 
before entering upon the narrative of their 
consequences, to take as complete a survey of 
that reign as our brief limits will allow us to 
offer. 

This volume, it will be seen, traces the 
stream of events only to the close of the year 
1848. It would be interesting to follow its 
course beyond that point, but the prescribed 
size of the book forbids. Interesting as it 
might be, however, it would, in many respects, 
be painful to record the subsequent history of 
those revolutionary movements which, last 
year, inspired the friends of liberal principles, 
in Europe and throughout the world, with 
enthusiasm and hope. To say nothing of the 
sore grief inflicted on our hearts by that latest 
blow of misfortune beneath which Hungary 
has fallen, who could behold the present atti- 
tude of France without mingled emotions of 
«e, indignation, and alarm ? Look for one 
3nt at her condition as depicted by 
a las Jerrold : — " All is calm as the shel- 
tered lake on a summer eve. But there is a 
fearful tempest gathering. The audacious 
designs of Legitimists and Monarchists — the 
infamous expedition to Rome — the state of 
siege — the suspended and muzzled press — the 



Viii PREFACE 



violation of individual liberty — the sweeping 
away of every political privilege won at the 
barricades of February — the imprisonment 
and exile of Republicans — the insolent disre- 
gard of the people's wishes — the deplorable 
state of the public treasury — the impending 
national bankruptcy — all these are slowly 
gathering and festering, and will soon break 
forth with violence so terrific that no human 
power will be able to check it. And God 
alone can tell the consequence." The colors, 
although dark, are not too dark, in this gloomy 
picture of the worst spectacle of " reaction " 
in Europe. France, with all her fine qualities 
of head and heart, is subject to fits of mad- 
ness. France is a maniac now, and the 
brighter and more exquisite are her faculties, 
the more melancholy is their eclipse. 

It is only an eclipse. It will pass like a 
shadow. France will yet be a light to the 
nations. Heavy as are the clouds of darkness 
that seem to be enveloping the European C^fe 
tinent, the word of promise is sure, that " d9 
ness cometh before day." 

Whatever may be the immediate effects of 
the convulsions of 1848, their tendency and 
their ultimate results cannot fail to be good. 
One thing, at least, has been already gained. 
It is thus indicated by President Wayland, in 



PREFACE. IX 

his eloquent discourse on the Recent Revolu- 
tions in Europe : — " The rights of man, as an 
intelligent and responsible being, have been 
definitely expressed ; and the expression must 
meet a response from every human heart. 
Truths like these stand in no need of support 
from argument; they appeal to every man's 
consciousness, and they cannot be obliterated 
from his recollection. Hence, whether sooner 
or later, they must work out their necessary 
result. The mist of ages has cleared away, 
and the haven has been discovered; and 
though the horizon may again be overcast, and 
progress for the time be arrested, yet hence- 
forth every movement will be in the right 
direction, until the nations repose in the enjoy- 
ment of peace and soul-liberty." 

The following extract, from the same dis- 
course, is at once so admirable and so perti- 
nent to our subject, that it shall conclude this 
preface. " Important social revolutions rarely 
advance in straight lines. Obstructions turn 
the movement, after it has commenced, some- 
times to the one side, and sometimes to the 
other. The course may thus be varied, but 
the tendency remains the same ; it gains 
strength by delay, and accumulates momentum 
by assimilating with itself every analogous 
impulse, until, having overcome every obstacle, 

1* 



PREFACE. 



it exerts its rightful power over the character 
of man. There may be, in the case before us, 
much to obstruct the cause of free opinion. 
The selfishness of the human heart may engen- 
der fierce collision. Ignorance of the princi- 
ples of our social nature may construct 
many a system utterly subversive of human 
happiness. Many things may retard the re- 
sult which we hope for, but they cannot 
change the tendency which God himself has 
impressed on our nature. Thus, when a 
mighty river issues from its source, the law of 
gravitation must bring it inevitably to the level 
of the ocean. It will flow for a thousand miles 
at the base of the mountains which arrest its 
course, collecting strength from the streams 
which are nourished in the summits of the bar- 
rier itself, until, swollen to irresistible force, it 
overcomes every obstacle, and sweeps its 
triumphant way through a multitude of nations; 
at last, gathering volume as it proceeds, at the 
spot marked out by the laws of its being, it 
pours itself into the ocean bay, bearing on its 
waters the riches of a continent, and inviting 
mighty navies to repose upon its bosom." 



CAUSES OF THE 

THIED FKENCH KEYOLUTION, 



CHAPTER I. 
FRANCE. 

THE EVE OF A REVOLUTION — THE THREE DAYS — THE ABDICATION 
AND FLIGHT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 

The causes of the Revolution of 1848 may be 
traced back to the Revolution of 1830. The latter 
was effected by two means — by the organized conspi- 
racy of the republicans, and by the spontaneous indig- 
nation of the middle classes at the despotic policy 
pursued by the Government of the Restoration. 
Through the influence of the agents whom the wealth 
of the Duke of Orleans enabled him to secure in the 
committees of the Carbonari and other secret societies, 
and through his own cunning management of the good, 
but too credulous Lafayette, the French people were 
induced to accept Louis Philippe as their King. They 
were deluded by the specious title under which this 
monarchy was offered as " the best of republics." But 
scarcely had that prince ascended the throne which he 
promised to surround with republican institutions, when 
he began, cautiously at first, but with increasing bold- 

11 



12 FRANCE. 

ness that at length became outright rashness, the 
traitorous work of rendering it despotic and absolute. 
The reaction against him, at least in the minds of the 
republicans, dates from the moment when he took his 
seat upon a throne which they had fought to destroy. 
They looked on themselves as deceived, tricked, and 
ignominiously vanquished. 

After a few abortive attempts at revolution on the 
part of some of the more impatient republicans, their 
party abandoned for a time the system of physical 
force, and relied for ultimate victory upon the influence 
of the pen (that surest of all instruments in the warfare 
of opinions), and also upon the self-destructive tendencies 
of the errors of government. 

The republicans were not wrong in anticipating 
errors in the course of government. For a while, in- 
deed, so long as the spirit of insurrection was yet alive, 
Louis Philippe affected the bearing as well as the title 
of a citizen king ; but no sooner was this crushed, than 
he entered upon a series of errors which were sure to 
prove in the end as ruinous to himself as to the nation. 
The personal pronoun he is here intentionally used, 
because the phrase so often applied to Louis Philippe, 
by way of justification or excuse, — the phrase, le roi 
regne et ne gouverne pas, — the king reigns, not governs, 
— is so well known to have involved an idle distinction, 
that it is not unjust to throw a large share of the 
responsibility attached to his administration, upon 
the ex-king himself. His attacks upon the liberty 
of the press and the right of meeting ; his short-sighted 
encouragement of financial speculations which would 
inevitably plunge the nation sooner or later into bank- 
ruptcy ; his connivance at a corrupt political system 
which ruled France by purchased majorities ; his 
alleged readiness, for the sake of alliance with despotic 
powers, to sacrifice the national honor, and the interests 
of liberty, in those countries which looked to France for 



SELFISH POLICY OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 13 

sympathy and aid in their resistance to tyranny ; in 
fine, the apparent avidity with which, throughout his 
whole policy, domestic and foreign, he sought to enrich 
and aggrandize himself and his family, tended to hasten 
the hour which should put a period to his sway. 

It may be well to indicate somewhat more particu- 
larly, the errors — to call them by so mild a name — 
which have been summed up in the preceding para- 
graph.- 

Louis Philippe, during his reign, followed, at home 
and abroad, a selfish policy. At home, all his efforts, 
were designed to increase the material prosperity of the 
middle classes, in such a way as to interest a powerful 
and influential party in his favor, by making them feel 
that their riches were derived from him. His efforts 
were for a long time successful. No government can 
last long at Paris without the support of the National 
Guard, which is composed principally of citizens belong- 
ing to the middle classes. So long as the National 
Guard remains faithful to the existing power, the army 
remains faithful: the moment the civic force wavers, 
then the line gives way. Now for many years the 
National Guard remained firmly faithful to a king who 
gave them peace and prosperity, and under whose 
reign commerce, trade, and the useful arts, made rapid 
progress. It has been observed that no greater proof 
is wanting of the blind adherence of the middle classes 
to the policy of Louis Philippe, than the large sums 
they allowed him to expend in fortifications, the vast 
increase of taxation to which they submitted unmur- 
muringly, and their readiness to second everything like 
democratic or republican change. Encouraged by im- 
punity, Louis Philippe appeared to forget how far the 
people had been instrumental in placing him on the 
throne, and to become wholly intent upon diverting to 
his own advantage the power with which he had been 
intrusted. His enormous extension of the civil list, his 



14 FRANCE. 

notorious abuse of permission to cut wood in the nation- 
al forests, his exorbitant demands for marriage portions 
in favor of his children, his system of creating numerous 
unnecessary offices in order to buy votes, and, in short, 
his grasping at almost every conceivable mode of 
draining money from the nation, had imposed so crush- 
ing a weight upon taxation, that it extorted complaints 
from all classes of society. What with direct imposi- 
tions, loans, and floating debt, the taxes in France were 
much heavier under the reign of Louis Philippe than 
dming the wars of Napoleon. The evils of this exces- 
sive taxation were aggravated by scarcity in 1847, when 
commerce was at a low ebb, every trade languished, 
labor was extremely ill-paid, and the whole country 
groaned under the burden of an oppressive and selfish 
system. The middle classes themselves had gradually 
been changed from staunch supporters of the king into 
lukewarm friends or direct enemies, and, consequently, 
the National Guard was no longer an impregnable 
tower of strength. 

The foreign policy of Louis Philippe was no less 
selfish than his domestic policy. The very first act of 
his ministry was the disavowal of all the insurrectionary 
tendencies, awakened by the example of France, in the 
rest of Europe. The design was to conciliate the vari- 
ous reigning powers by this ominous token of the in- 
tention of government to deny those principles, as the 
exponent of which it had been raised to authority. 
But even after its recognition, Austria and Prussia but 
coolly received its representatives, and Russia did not 
hesitate to make the residence of a French ambassador 
at her court as unpleasant as want of consideration and 
personal disrespect could render it. England is with- 
out doubt, therefore, indebted less to the personal pre- 
dilections of Louis Philippe than to the necessities of 
his position, for the apparent good feeling evinced 
towards her during the earlier portion of his reign. 



FOREIGN POLICY OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 15 

In spite of his frequent professions of personal attach- 
ment to the Royal Family of England, and of his 
wish to maintain the entente coi'diale, as it has been 
called, " a good understanding," between France and 
Great Britain, it is now clear that his chief desire was 
to strengthen his throne by alliance with the more 
absolute monarchies, rather than by promoting sympa- 
thies founded on resemblance in the fundamental and 
constitutional elements of national government. The 
fear of coming to a positive difference with England 
before his throne was firmly enough established to sus- 
tain the shock, was probably the constraining reason 
that he did not accept the crown of Belgium for his 
son the Duke of Nemours. And afterwards, a sense 
of the necessity of still preserving the English alliance 
unbroken, was the secret of that peace policy (over- 
praised in this country because its motives were mis- 
taken or unknown) which transferred the reins of 
administration from Thiers to Guizot, in consequence 
of the deception practised by the latter in such a way 
as to encourage both monarch and minister to play, 
for their own purposes, into the hands of the war 
party, at the period when the conflicting interests of 
Turkey and Egypt in Syria had given reason for an 
intervention of the greater powers, France was then 
chagrined to find herself suddenly isolated from the 
rest of Europe by the decision of England, Russia, 
Austria, and Prussia, to settle the question without 
their assistance. Among the various movements to 
which the subsiding agitation of the Three Days gave 
an impulse, the Belgian Revolution was the only one 
in which France took a prominent part. The reluctant 
occupation of Ancona, counteracted as it was by the 
attitude preserved by the French government, was 
almost valueless in its results. It did not hinder Italy 
from falling back to her old position, hopeless" of 
liberty, and cursing the .delusion by which she had 



16 FRANCE. 

been tempted to trust to French support. In concert 
with Guizot, Louis Philippe had aimed by his defence 
of the Gallician massacres, by his proffer of support to 
the Jesuits in Switzerland, to the Sonderbund, and by 
his refusal of sympathy and aid to the promoters of 
liberal principles in Italy, to secure the forgiveness of 
Austria for her sins against legitimacy. He. had 
sought to reconcile. Russia by his abandonment of the 
interests of Poland. Confident of the alliance of these 
Northern powers, he at length ventured to cut the ties 
by which he had hitherto been bound to England. 
He had already commenced and carried on a system 
of nepotism, of family aggrandizement, which had 
allotted to one son, the Duke de Nemours, the dignity 
of Regent in case of his own death ; which had 
appointed another son, the Duke d' Aumale, Governor- 
General of Algeria ; another, the Prince de Joinville, 
Admiral of the Navy; and evinced an intention to 
create for still another, the Duke de Montpensier, the 
title of Grand Master of the Artillery, — thus violating 
the spirit of the French military -system that permits 
every common soldier to aspire to the rank of Marshal ; 
which, in fine, had seated one daughter of the House 
of Orleans on the throne of Belgium, and given to one 
son a royal bride and a vice-royalty : This system of 
nepotism he now resolved to consummate by wedding 
another son, in spite of the opposition of Great Britain, 
with an heiress presumptive to the throne of Spain. 
This alliance, prompted by a purely dynastic motive, 
severed the alliance with England which the French 
nation had supported impatiently, but still supported, 
on account of the great interests of humanity, the free- 
dom of the seas, commerce, and industry ; but when it 
was thus suddenly thrown to the winds for the sake of 
family aggrandizement, France perceived that there 
was nothing sincere but ambition in the condescension 
until then shown by Louis Philippe to England. From 



POLITICAL CORRUPTION. 17 

that day, says Larnartine, who predicted the fata, 
results of the ambitious and impolitic marriage of the 
Duke de Montpensier, — from that day, the King, 
rendered unpopular with the republican party by his 
throne, and unpopular with the legitimist party by his 
usurpation, was rendered unpopular with the pacific 
and government party, by the war with which the 
Spanish marriage menaced France. Such was the 
effect of the selfish foreign policy pursued by the King 
of the French. 

Louis Philippe, however, thought himself invincible, 
because he still retained a ministry, eloquent in parlia- 
ment and ngreeable at court, and two strong majorities 
in the chambers. But the very remnant of strength 
to which he trusted became his destruction. The 
corrupt means employed in obtaining and holding it 
began justly to excite popular indignation. Out of a 
population of 35,400,486 only a few more than 
200,000 enjoyed the privileges of electors. The cen- 
tralization which existed in France left at the disposal 
of Government more than four hundred thousand 
offices, great and small. These, with crosses of the 
Legion of Honor, roads, concessions of mines, loans to 
companies, and direct purchase of votes by cash, ena- 
bled the Guizot administration to ensure itself a major- 
ity. But even this majority must needs be secured 
by making it interested. Out of four hundred and 
fifty members, therefore, two hundred and four were 
made placemen, and the chamber was thus crowded 
by salaried functionaries of Government. The popular 
complaints of corruption were ratified by judicial 
decisions, in processes , instituted against public officers 
and men who had sat on the same benches with Guizot, 
for the sale of places. The trial of Teste and his asso- 
ciates revealed to an alarming extent the justice of 
those complaints. 

The example of servility and selfishness in high 



18 FRANCE. 

places became the source of wide-spread contagion. 
Ministers who sold concessions and bargained for tlie 
price of a law, were imitated by clerks in government 
offices. Men shamelessly offered their services to 
government at a fixed price, and ■ cases were not un- 
known where offices were obtained at the expense of a 
wife's dishonor. The management of theatres was 
sold to the highest bidder. In fact, corruption infected 
every department of public service, and even, at length, 
the walks of private life. " It would seem," observed, 
in September, 1847, a French writer (whose survey of 
the subject, from a strictly religious point of view, is 
entitled to peculiar consideration) — " it would seem as 
though our rulers had sought systematically to stifle 
honorable sentiments, and to excite in men's hearts an 
immoderate, an insatiable love of money. They have 
adopted this line of conduct as a means of extinguish- 
ing public spirit, of preventing all serious opposition, 
and of everywhere forming docile instruments. They 
have preached with effrontery in their journals, and 
from the parliamentary tribune, the religion of mate- 
rial interests, alleging that it is the great object of 
human life, and the essential end of society. Alas ! 
our rulers have been but too successful in this new 
kind of proselytism. Citizens of all ranks have rushed 
with phrensied eagerness on the bait so imprudently 
offered to their avarice. ' Money ! money at any price !' 
Such has appeared to be the cry alike of the highest 
and of the lowest in the social scale ; and, amidst the 
universal ruins of religion and virtue, cupidity has re- 
mained standing like a mighty giant !" The records 
of the French courts of justice during the year 1847, 
expose the political corruption of ex-ministers like Teste 
and Cubieres, the licentiousness of many popular au- 
thors and journalists, the horrors of the Praslin tragedy 
(in which government is more than suspected of having 
connived at the suicide of the Duke de Praslin), the self 



RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS. 19 

murders and crazy attempts at murder on the part of 
certain diplomatic officers of high rank, like the Counts 
de Bresson and Mortier ; and are full of other hideous 
developments of sin and madness in private and public 
life. They also testify to the religious persecutions 
endured by the Baptists in the Department of l'Aisne, 
whose persistence in exercising the right of meeting, 
guaranteed to them in common with all Frenchmen 
by the charter, was visited by trials, fines, and impri- 
sonment. M. Odillon Barrot, a principal promoter of 
the Reform Banquets of 1847, cordially accepted an 
invitation to become the legal adviser of the Baptists. 
On one occasion, at a trial where his engagements 
prevented him from being present as their advocate, 
his place was supplied by M. Henri Lutteroth, the able 
conductor of Le Semeur, a leading Parisian journal, 
who, although not agreeing with their denominational 
peculiarities, was deeply interested in the principle at 
stake, and in the constancy with which these humble 
Christians suffered in order to maintain it. The case 
was decided against them by the higher courts to 
which it was successively carried. It was still pending 
When the Revolution broke forth, the immediate con- 
sequence of a struggle for the same principle involved 
in their case, a struggle provoked by the same absolute 
law which had been revived in order to interfere with 
their right of meeting. Thus the heroic resistance of a 
few obscure Baptists to an odious law, was among the 
proximate causes of hastening an event which other 
causes had already rendered inevitable. 

That this event had become inevitable, that it was 
becoming imminent, was indicated by signs that daily 
multiplied. The circumstance that in the winter of 
1847 thousands of spectators were attracted to one of 
the theatres in Paris by a play entitled la Revolution 
Frangaise, the French Revolution, caused the writer 
of these pages (then residing at Paris) to pen the fol- 



20 FRANCE. 

lowing paragraph : " The Parisians at present content 
themselves with being amused by minute representa- 
tions of scenes which were stern and stirring realities 
for their fathers. In the faubourg St. Antoine, how- 
ever, slumber fires yet unquenched that will surely 
burst forth with all their fury in the next French 
Revolution. For why should there not be another ? 
The king, with all his tact and his decision of character, 
cannot live for ever ; and even before the firm hand 
which now wields the sceptre is palsied in death, the 
prestige of Louis Philippe's name may have vanished, 
and scores of contingent causes may excite the ' wliirl- 
wind and storm.' The only infallible security against 
political disorder, is a degree of civil right and liberty, 
and of intellectual and moral development, which the 
masses are far, very far from having attained. And if 
a revolution should arise, its most fearful element 
would be, as of old, the rage of the people. Before 
this terrible power, the monied aristocracy which 
sixteen years of golden peace have created, would flee 
as speedily as the nobility and even the royalty of a 
former day." It may be allowable to have repeated 
this partial prediction, now that it has since been 
signally fulfilled. 

During the interval, in 1847, between the proroga- 
tion of the Chamber of Deputies in July, and its re- 
assembling in December, much more significant exhibi- 
tions of public feeling than those which attended the 
play alluded to, were made at various political dinners, 
held throughout the provinces. Many of these assem- 
blies were under the direction of M. Duvergier (de 
Hauranne), a deputy, who, since he cast off allegiance 
to M. Guizot in 1S39, had been assiduous in his 
endeavors to promote by speeches and publications, the 
cause of electoral reform. At all of these Reform 
Banquets, as they were called — about sixty in number, 
— the custom universal in monarchical countries of 



SOCIALISTIC DOCTRINES. 21 

drinking to the sovereign's health, was invariably 
omitted, for the purpose of testifying the displeasure of 
the people whose temporary favor had elevated Louis 
Philippe to the throne. The Banquets were attended 
by most of the prominent members of the different 
parties of the opposition ; and the freedom with which 
the subject of electoral reform was discussed, resulted 
in a healthy agitation of public sentiment that boded 
well for the rational progress of constitutional liberty in 
France. 

The steady opposition maintained at these Reform 
Banquets, at the parliamentary tribune, and through 
the press, against the selfish policy of Louis Philippe, 
co-operated with the vices and errors of government, 
and with the accumulating forces of public opinion, to 
produce the Revolution of 1848. 

Among the forces of public opinion which have just 
been mentioned, one of the most effectual and impor- 
tant was that communicated by the impulse of what 
usually pass under the name of Socialistic doctrines. 
Although this name covers the utmost variety of views, 
held by as great a variety of parties, yet those who 
entertain them are often quite indiscriminately classed 
together as Socialists, whether they are disciples of 
Saint Simon or Fourier, admirers of Pierre Leroux, of 
Considerant, or of Proudhon, or belong to the nume- 
rous subdivisions under the title of Communistes- 
£r/alitaires, Communionistes, Communitaires, Commu- 
nistes-materialistes, CommunauUstes, etc., etc., which 
compose the party of Communists. Now, the intellec- 
tual activity of France had been nowhere more vigor- 
ously exercised during late years, than in discussing 
great Social questions. An incredible number of books 
and pamphlets had been occasioned by almost eveiy 
known or alleged evil, and by almost every proposed 
reform. Texts had alternately been furnished by 
prison discipline, colonial slavery, legislative and finau- 



22 FRANCE. 

cial arrangements, pauperism, public education, and 
especially by that all-absorbing question from which no 
political thinker can longer avert his attention — the im- 
provement of the existing relations between what is 
designated as the laboring portion of the community 
and their employers, the question known on the Euro- 
pean continent under the technical name of the 
Organization of Labor. The discussion of these great 
questions had long occupied an increasing number of 
Socialists of every party and of no party in France. The 
writer has elsewhere had occasion to say that the 
French Socialists " have raised many problems which 
await future solution. They have sown in the public 
mind many ideas, which, amidst tares, will yet yield 
good grain. Without admiring some of the motley 
peculiarities by which they are distinguished, it is right 
to recognise in their ranks not a few of the most earnest 
and devoted friends of humanity. Even the dreams of 
those among them who are not utterly lost in the dark- 
ness of infidelity, reflect, however dimly, the light of the 
purest and highest truth. The beauty of their best 
conceptions is, as the Germans might call it, a certain 
after-shine (iiachskehi) of Christianity/' To introduce 
the briefest possible explanation of their views, it may 
be said that they added a new to the old revolutionary 
principle. The old principle includes the right of self- 
government and civil and religious liberty — the prin- 
ciples, in feet, that in the first French revolution were 
so wisely advocated by Vergniaud, Bailey, Eoland, 
Brissot, and the other Girondins ; and so ferociously 
contended for by Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Marat, 
Robespierre, Hebert, and Chaumette ; and which, in 
the revolution of 1830, found illustrious advocates in 
Lafayette, Constant, and Lafitte. The o/d principle is 
only a political principle, and attempts to realize what 
our own American people have realized under a Re- 
public. Louis Philippe invaded this principle, and he 



THE REFORM BANQUETS. 23 

fell. But his overthrow was aided by a new principle, 
which adopts the old one, but goes much further. It 
insists not only upon civil and religious liberty, and a 
share in the government through suffrage, for the 
whole adult population, but also upon the establishment 
of new Social relations between capital and labor. By 
a new distribution of wealth, and by the destruction, or 
at least the modification of individualism, it would show 
to the world that every man might have more than 
enough for his wants, and poverty and crime be alto- 
gether banished from society. This new principle had 
gained numerous converts among the uneducated as 
well as the educated classes. Many of its most active 
recruits were drawn from the ranks of the workingmen 
of Paris, large numbers of whom had accepted Louis 
Blanc as their apostle, as their master and guide in the 
investigation of the industrial problem. It was these 
men, in reality, whose strong arms overthrew the 
monarchy. For a moment the new and the old revo- 
lutionary principle struggled together, and struggled 
successfully against the despotic tendencies of the sys- 
tem of Louis Philippe. To show here how soon and 
how unfortunately the respective adherents of the two 
principles began to war against each other, would be to 
anticipate the course of our narrative. Let us re- 
turn to the immediate consequences of the Reform 
Banquets. Here we may enter upon Mr. Kelly's ac- 
count. 

" On the 28th of December, 184*7, the last session of 
the French Parliament as constituted by the Charter 
of 1830, was opened by Louis Philippe in person. 
The interest of the royal speech centred almost wholly 
on one passage ; it was that in which allusion was 
made to the numerous banquets that had been held all 
over the kingdom, in furtherance of the pressing de- 
mand for parliamentary reform. These banquets were 
characterized by the King as the result of an "agitation 



24 FRANCE. 

fomented by blind and hostile passions." Such language 
could not fail to be vehemently resented by a conside- 
rable minority in the Chamber, as an insolent and 
unconstitutional censure ; and out of doors it was re- 
peated with astonishment, indignation, alarm, or mali- 
cious exultation, according as each man feared or 
desired the convulsion it portended. The funds fell 
on the publication of the royal speech. The debate in 
the Chamber of Peers, on the address in answer to the 
speech, passed off, as was to be expected, in a manner 
quite satisfactory to ministers. It was far otherwise in 
the Chamber of Deputies, where the debate was pro- 
tracted through no fewer tnan nineteen sittings. The 
paragraph relating to the Reform banquets came under 
discussion on the 7th of February, previously to which 
day the angry feelings of the Opposition had been 
exasperated by a fresh provocation on the part of 
ministers. 

The twelfth arrondissement of Paris having resolved 
to hold on the 19 th of January, a public banquet, at 
which it was expected that a large body of the Oppo- 
sition Deputies would be present, the stewards received 
notice from the prefecture of police that the requisite 
permission would not be granted them. The stewards 
replied that they had neither asked, nor thought of 
asking, a permission of which they stood in no need ; 
and that, as the laws directed against associations were 
of no force against these meetings, they should treat 
the interference of the police with contempt. The 
banquet, however, was postponed. On the 24th the 
stewards published a notice that the meeting should 
positively be held, and they emphatically pledged 
themselves to bring the question of law to an issue. 
The banquet was subsequently announced for the 20th 
of February, but again postponed to the 2 2d. So 
threatening did the aspect of the capital become, in 
consequence of the fermentation of popular feeling, 



CONDUCT OF THE OPPOSITION. 25 

during the interval, that ministers seem to have felt 
the necessity of tempering their firmness with all pos- 
sible show of moderation and deference for established 
law. Accordingly, they intimated, in the course of the 
debate on the address in the Chamber of Deputies, that 
they would only offer a formal opposition to the ban- 
quet, with a view to bring the disputed question to a 
legal arbitrament. A single commissary of police was 
to be stationed at the door of the banqueting-hall, and 
after warning those present of the illegality of the pro- 
ceedings, he was to take down the names of such as 
insisted on entering, and then withdraw. On the 11th 
the Chamber voted the passage of the address echoing- 
the obnoxious passage in the royal speech. On the 
12th, the several paragraphs of the address having 
been voted, a division took place on the whole collect- 
ively. The Opposition members abstained from voting, 
and ministers had a majority of 241 votes in a house 
of 244. The Opposition, to the number of more than 
a hundred, met the next day, and resolved unanimously 
that they would all attend the banquet, and that no. 
member of their party, even if chosen by lot, should 
go up with the deputation which was to present the 
address to the King. Several of the Opposition mem- 
bers had, before this, talked of resigning, and appealing 
to the country — a course which Einile de Girardin, the 
able editor of La Presse, a leading Parisian journal, 
strongly, recommended and enforced by his example ; 
but the majority decided that it was their duty to 
remain at their posts as watchful guardians of the 
public rights. 

Thus far we see the two hostile parties appealing to 
the law for the justification of their conduct, and pro- 
fessing to act strictly in accordance with their several 
interpretations of certain ambiguous enactments ; but 
the next movement of the Opposition deputies car- 
ried them out of the pale of the law, and exposed 
2 



26 FRANCE. 

them to be taken in the flank by their antagonists. 
" The general committee appointed to organize the 
banquet," published in the papers on Sunday evening 
and Monday morning, the 20th and 21st, " a manifesto, 
prescribing the mode of assemblage and the order in 
which the procession was to reach the place of rendez- 
vous. The National Guard were specially invited to 
attend, in order to accomplish the double duty of de- 
fending liberty by joining the demonstration, and pro- 
tecting order and preventing all collision by their pre- 
sence." They were to line the streets through which 
the procession passed, and to form in columns in the 
numerical order of their respective legions, with their 
officers at their head ; but they were to present them- 
selves without arms. 

Eagerly seizing the advantage thus afforded it, the 
Government issued three proclamations on Monday, 
absolutely prohibiting the banquet, on the ground that 
the summons addressed to the National Guard by the 
banquet committee was a flagrant violation of the law 
and the constitution, and tantamount to setting up an 
imperium in imperio, an empire within an empire. 
In point of law, the ministers were clearly in the 
right, but they had put themselves in a false position, 
from which they were not to be extricated by the most 
dexterous use of any error in tactics committed by 
their opponents. A question was at issue involving 
principles of the highest order, and an attempt to 
shirk it upon a by-plea was pitiably out of place. 
The crisis was one that demanded for its pacific solu- 
tion the genius of a great statesman; the ministry 
had nothing better to apply to it than the clever sub- 
terfuges of men versed in the chicanery of party. 

Meanwhile they had been long making military pre- 
parations on a scale sufficient, as they thought, to 
render all resistance hopeless. The garrison of Paris 
had been increased to the number of nearly 100,000 



27 

men, and supplied with axes, pickaxes, shovels, and 
other implements for demolishing barricades, with 
fifty ball-cartridges and provisions for four days. The 
cannon at Vincennes were put in requisition for active 
service, and the streets of the capital resounded by 
night with the heavy rolling of wagons conveying 
ammunition. But far from being dismayed by this 
vast array of physical force, the enemies of the mo- 
narchy seem to have beheld in it a sure prognostic of 
their own approaching triumph. M. Goudchaux, one 
of the Republican ministers, has deposed, that " some 
days before the Revolution " a provisional government 
was actually nominated by a committee sitting in his 
house. Many other conclaves, similarly engaged, were 
held nightly in various quarters of the town. 

The prohibition of the Metropolitan Reform banquet 
sealed the doom of Louis Philippe. His fall, which 
was now inevitable, involved that of Guizot, who, al- 
though he had at first opposed, yet afterwards con- 
sented to the act, and thus shared its responsibility and 
its fatal consequences. In this last instance of subject- 
ing his high intellect to the exigency and dictation of 
a meaner one, the minister filled to the brim the mea- 
sure of his previous political errors. He thus com- 
pleted the forfeiture of that fame as a statesman, 
which, until he was tricked into becoming the tool of a 
royal master, the gravity of his character, so unusual 
among Frenchmen, his profound learning, impressive 
eloquence, and acknowledged integrity, had won for 
him, shedding additional lustre upon his fame as an his- 
torian. Guizot may have imagined that the interests 
of France depended on strengthening the ties which 
bound the Orleans dynasty to it. But his mistaken, if 
not criminal confidence in the wily son of Philippe 
Egalite, led him to serve his king better than his 
country. He was destined to reap his reward. With- 
in a few hours from the date of his latest act of sub* 



28 FRANCE. 

serviency to the will of the monarch, and of haughty 
opposition to the will of the people, he was to be 
hurled from his elevated place of power. His emo- 
tions upon this sudden reverse of power might have 
been expressed by him in the language which Shak- 
speare, his familiar poet, puts in the mouth of another 
fallen courtier : — 

Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness ! 
****** I have ventured 
This many summers in a sea of glory ; 
But, far beyond my depth, my high-blown pride 
At length broke under me, and now has left me, 
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy 
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. 
****** O how wretched 
Is that poor man that hangs on prince's favors ! 
* * , When he falls, he falls, like Lucifer, 
Never to hope again. 

The monarch whose influence over his ministers had 
been so unfortunate for both, richly merited, as a politi- 
cian and as a prince, the disgrace which awaited him. 
As an individual, the history of his early vicissitudes is 
peculiarly interesting : a sincere respect may be che- 
rished for his private virtues as a son, a brother, a hus- 
band, a father ; for his urbanity of manners, for the 
wonderful variety and extent of his knowledge, and for 
his superior talents ; but neither admiration of his ex- 
cellent personal qualities, nor sympathy with the trials 
of his youth, can or ought to alter in the least the con- 
viction forced upon every impartial mind, that his heart 
had long been false to his original profession of those 
liberal principles which for years it seems to have been 
his object to subvert. 

Louis Philippe and Guizot, by their final act of blind 
and insane resistance to the popular and liberal princi- 
ple, hastened an inevitable crisis. They forgot, in 
their infatuation, how deeply, how fully they were in- 



SINGULAR COINCIDENCES. 29 

debted to that very principl, for the power which they 
possessed. Nor could they have chosen a more unfa- 
vorable moment for this arrogant abuse of their power, 
than at a period when the entire political aspect of Eu- 
rope — with a revolution in Sicily — a revolution in 
Naples — a Constitution granted to the Tuscans — and 
great concessions made to the Piedmontese — might 
have revealed to them the folly and danger of attempt- 
ing to enslave France, whose favorite boast is its claim 
to be a pioneer in the path of progressive liberty on the 
Continent. 

Near the tumultuous close of one of the debates in 
the Chamber on that paragraph in the royal speech 
relating to the Reform banquets, Odillon Barrot succeed- 
ed in making his voice heard above the uproar, and 
exclaimed, " I call on you to hear me, and to weigh well 
my words : Ministers of the Revolution of July, you 
violate a law respected even by the Restoration at the 
very moment of its fall. I tell you that you do not 
respect even what was respected by Polignac." It was 
Polignac whose fatal support of Charles X. in his un- 
conditional measures, led to the outbreak in 1830, which 
drove that sovereign into exile. The bold reproof of 
the orator should have alarmed the Court like a voice 
of prophecy ; but it was unheeded, and Louis Philippe 
and Guizot paid the penalty for failing to profit by the 
fate of Charles X. and Polignac. 

It is a singular coincidence that the downfall of the 
successive monarchies was preceded by events in Alge- 
ria, which, under different circumstances, would have 
been highly fortunate. On the first day of the year 
1848, the surrender of Abd-el-Kader was made known 
in Paris. That modern Jugurtha had scarcely set foot, 
however, on the soil of those who had defeated and 
duped him, when he beheld the end of a reign, the be- 
ginning of which his cwn struggle with France had 
witnessed. While the fall of the Arab chieftain grati- 



30 FRANCE. 

fied the martial pride of France, by securing to her the 
undisputed possession of her conquest, and opportunely 
closed one huge drain upon her exchequer, it wholly 
failed of yielding to the dynastic party any accession of 
popularity. Louis Philippe in 1848, like Charles X. in 
1830, found in the success achieved in Algeria, not even 
a momentary abatement of the disaffection which por- 
tended an approaching crisis. 

The crisis came. The causes which have been indi- 
cated in this rapid survey of the reign of Louis Philippe 
at length reached their unavoidable conclusion. Louis 
Philippe was no longer King of the French — 

" Eighteen years his evil spirit brooded o'er a noble land, 

Eighteen years he lied and cheated ;~found France gold, and 
made her sand ; 

Fooled whom he could not corrupt ; sundered freemen ; banded 
slaves ; 

Filled his Africa with butchers ; filled- his France with worser 
knaves ; 

Stripped the people of their weapons,, gagged them with Sep- 
tember laws ; 

Girdled Paris with his bastions ; stuffed with shells their mur- 
derous maws ; 

Picked out one whom God had made good and great and lion- 
brave, 

Made him evil, and, O marvel ! from a Guizot wrought a 
slave * 

— And to fall now, beat and baffled, 'neath his burghers' dusty 
feet, 

Checked by a dozen barricades, felled by the stones that pave 
the street, 

With his hundred thousand men, with his Bugeaud, with his 
might — 

Quelled by one million citizens — weak, unarmed — but in the 
right ! " 

The determination of the Government not to allow 
the banquet was not known in the Chamber of Depu- 
ties until a late hour on Monday. A debate on a 
bank-bill was proceeding languidly in the almost empty 



REFORM BANQUET PROHIBITED. 31 

chamber, when at a little before five every bench was 
filled by a sudden influx of Deputies. An animated 
dialogue ensued between M. Odillon Barrot, the leader 
of the Opposition, and M. Duchatel, Minister of the 
Interior ; after which the Chamber adjourned, and the 
Opposition Deputies held a meeting to consider what 
steps they should next take. A minority of eighteen, 
including Lamartine, Cremieux, and Ledru Rollin, 
were for proceeding at all risks in the course already 
announced, but the majority resolved to forego the 
banquet and impeach ministers. By this decision the 
members of the dynastic Opposition at once severed 
the temporary bond that had united them with the 
ultra-Liberal party. From that moment they fell from 
their position as leaders, and were contemptuously 
brushed aside, as useless incumbrances, by men who 
were ready to brave every chance, b>ut for a higher 
stake than a mere change of ministry and some specious 
modification of a thoroughly rotten system. 

It was not until late on Monday night that the news 
of the prohibition was generally current in Paris, 
except as a rumor. The principal thoroughfares 
were filled with anxious crowds impatiently waiting for 
the evening papers. When they appeared as usual at 
nine o'clock, the whole impression was instantly scram- 
bled for and exhausted by purchasers at fifteen or 
twenty times the ordinary price. Between nine and 
ten the proclamations against the banquet were sudden- 
ly placarded on every wall in Paris. Large groups 
gathered round each of them, while one man read 
their contents aloud by torch-light. They were then 
torn down and trampled under foot, and every man 
whispered his neighbor that next day all Frenchmen 
should be ready to do their duty. 

The early part of Tuesday morning passed off with- 
out any unusual display, but about half-past ten a 
crowd of some five or six thousand persons assembled 



32 FRANCE. 

in front of the Chamber of Deputies, and began to 
force their way into the interior : they were easily dis- 
persed by the troops which had been concentrated 
round the building during the night. The crowd 
retired quietly, singing the Marseillaise, and went to 
swell with their numbers the dense multitude now 
collected in the vast area between the Chamber of 
Deputies and the church of the Madeleine. The popu- 
lace in this part of the city were unarmed, and as jet 
exhibited no symptoms of violence. Horse and foot 
were sent to disperse them, which was effected without 
any loss of life or other serious casualty, and with a 
singular display of good humor on both sides, the 
populace cheering the soldiers of the line ; but wherever 
the Municipal Guard (police soldiers) appeared, they 
were hooted and pelted with stones. About noon the 
Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres was assailed by a large 
mob, who strove to burst open the gate and inflict 
summary vengeance on Guizot ; but they were easily 
repulsed by the strong force posted in and around the 
building. At one o'clock all the main thoroughfares 
were clear. 

The lull did not last long. About three o'clock all 
the shops in the northern part of the metropolis were 
closed, and alarm generally prevailed. The populace 
had now begun to act on the offensive ; some small 
detached posts were carried by them, the soldiers 
offering no * resistance ; one or two armorers' shops 
were pillaged, and a few barricades were formed with 
overturned carts, hackney-coaches, and omnibuses, but 
were taken by the troops almost as soon as erected. 
All this while the soldiers of the line and of the police 
force had alone been employed on the side of the 
Government, the ministers fearing to call out the Na- 
tional Guard, whose peculiar duty it was to act in 
similar emergencies. About five o'clock, however, the 
Executive, yielding to the entreaties of many leading 



PARIS INSURGENT. 33 

men, suffered the rappel to be beaten, and the manner 
in which it was done was curious and significant. The 
drummers were preceded and followed by detachments 
of the National Guard, and the rear was brought up 
by some hundreds of young fellows in blouses, armed 
with long sticks, and roaring out the favorite cries and 
songs of the day. It was evident the populace re- 
garded the civic soldiers as their own trusty allies. 
But few of the latter responded to the call to arms : 
out of its 8000 men, the 2d legion mustered only 544, 
and those who obeyed the summons were left wholly 
unprovided with ammunition, with the sole exception 
of the 1st legion belonging to the district of the 
palaces, and numbering in its ranks many court trades- 
men and other staunch Orleanists. 

The Chamber of Deputies had met as usual at one 
o'clock, and proceeded very methodically to discuss — 
the Bordeaux bank-bill ! M. Guizot arrived early, 
looking pale but undaunted. At three o'clock the 
Opposition members entered the chamber, and M. de 
Hauranne handed the President a paper containing a 
proposition for the impeachment of ministers. The 
President passed it to M. Guizot, who, after perusing 
it, laughed immoderately. Still the Chamber went on 
discussing the Bordeaux Bank-bill, and about five 
o'clock the President was about to leave his seat, when 
M. Barrot reminded him that a formal proposition had 
been deposited, and requested it might be read. The 
President replied that it must first be examined in 
committee, after which it would be brought up on 
Thursday. When that Thursday came, where was 
the Chamber of Deputies ? 

The Government and its partisans beheld in the 
events of the day only matter to justify their own con- 
temptuous security. Scarcely had one weapon to a 
thousand men been seen in the hands of the mob, who 
had thought to terrify by their brawling a ministry 
c * 2* 



34 FRANCE. 

defended by 100,000 bayonets. As the night drew 
in, the whole western district of Paris was cleared of 
the rioters, and occupied by the military, who bivou- 
acked round huge camp-fires in the broad streets and 
square's. The skirmishing continued to a late hour in 
the quarters St. Denis, Bonne Nouvelle, St. Martin, and 
the Marais, where several barricades were erected ; but 
as the people had little ammunition, they were not 
warmly defended, and about one o'clock all was still. 

The aspect of things was materially changed on 
Wednesday morning. Barricades sprang up rapidly 
in the narrow and intricate streets between the inner 
boulevards, the Rue St. Martin, and the river. The 
troops attacked them at an early hour, but the warm 
fire with which they were met snowed that the people 
had by this time procured a considerable stock of arms. 
At many barricades the troops were repulsed, and only 
succeeded in capturing them after a third or a fourth 
charge. Two-and-twenty soldiers fell in one of these 
attacks in the Rue Quincampoix. 

It was no longer a riot, but a vast insurrection, that 
was raging in the streets of the capital ; the issue de- 
pended entirely on the conduct which the National 
Guard would pursue. If any considerable portion of 
them sided with the Government, or if they even stood 
aloof, the soldiers of the line would fight to the last ex- 
tremity ; but the event proved that they would not 
turn their weapons against the civic force. At seven 
in the morning the generate was beaten for the National 
Guard, who now obeyed the summons with alacrity ; 
at the same time declaring that their purpose was not 
to protect the ministry, but to stop the effusion of 
blood. The legions, as they formed, shouted, " Vive la 
Reforme /" " Down with Guizot !" " Down with the 
Ministers !" The colonel of the 10th legion threw up 
his command upon the refusal of his soldiers to arrest 
a gentleman in plain clothes who had uttered the popu- 



35 

lar cry. The colonels of the 2d and 3d legions went 
and informed the King, through the Duke de Nemours 
and General Jacqueinenot, that if the required conces- 
sions were not made to public opinion, they could no 
longer answer for the men under their command. Re- 
peatedly during the course of this day the National 
Guard interposed between the populace and the sol- 
diers who were about to charge them. The command- 
ing officers of the two corps would then hold a brief 
parley, after which the troops of the line would shoul- 
der their arms and march off, followed by the acclama- 
tions of the people. 

Immediately after the opening of the Chamber of 
Deputies on Wednesday, M. Vavin, one of the deputies 
for Paris, called upon the Minister of the Interior to 
account for the scenes then passing in the capital, and 
to explain why the National Guard had not been called 
out from the beginning. M. Guizot, on the part of his 
colleagues, declined answering these questions, but 
stated that the King had sent for Count Mole, and 
empowered him to form a ministry. After the com- 
motion produced by this announcement had subsided, 
Odillon Barrot moved the adjournment of the proposi- 
tion for an impeachment. He was seconded by M. 
Dupin, who observed that, until their successors were 
in office, the out-going ministry were responsible for 
the conduct of the public affairs, and he knew not how 
they could attend at the same time to the re-establish- 
ment of order and to the care of their own safety. 
Nothing could be more reasonable ; but M. Guizot dis- 
dained to accept any voluntary concession at the 
hands of his antagonists. " As long as the cabinet is 
upon these benches," he said, " no business need re- 
main suspended." In these, the last words of his offi- 
cial life, was embodied the whole concentrated force of 
his indomitable pride, — " Pride," says De Cormenin, " of 
which his soul is too full to leave room for any other 



36 FRANCE. 

sentiment. He might be thrust head-foremost into 
the ocean, and he would not admit that he was 
drowning, so violent and desperate is the faith with 
which he believes in his own infallibility." The Con- 
servative majority voted to a man against the adjourn- 
ment, and the Chamber broke up in clamorous con- 
fusion. 

As the report of the fall of the Guizot cabinet spread 
through Paris, it was followed by an immediate cessa- 
tion of hostilities. By seven o'clock the general aspect 
of the capital was peaceable ; the people were in high 
glee, and readily gave up the prisoners they had made 
during the day. Still the defenders of the barricades 
between the Portes St. Denis and St. Martin were not 
content to accept a Mole administration as satisfaction 
in full for the popular demands. They doubted the 
good faith of the court, and in these sentiments they 
were confirmed by many ardent Republicans of the 
better classes, who had mingled among them with 
blouses drawn over their clothes. Sentinels, therefore, 
were posted at every issue, and the malcontents passed 
the night within their fortified camp. 

Elsewhere all was joy and good humor, except in 
the hearts of the disappointed Republicans, who bitter- 
ly bewailed the easy credulity of the people. After 
dark there was a general illumination, and the streets 
were thronged with curious spectators of all ages, sexes, 
and conditions. Here and there a few unlighted 
houses, black specks amid the general brightness, typi- 
fied the sullen temper of their inmates ; but they, too, 
were forced by the populace to do like their neighbors, 
and not a house at the court end remained unillumi- 
nated, except the official residence of M. Hebert, and 
that of M. Guizot, on the Boulevard des Capucines. 
The latter continued to be as strongly guarded as 
ever, both within and without, although the troops had 
elsewhere been gradually withdrawn after the announce- 



MASSACRE OF THE BOULEVARD DES CAPUCINES. 37 

ment of tke change of ministry. The strong display 
of military force outside the building was now quite 
superfluous, and therefore highly impolitic ; for it is a 
maxim, which the greatest military authority of mo- 
dern times has constantly enforced, both by precept 
and example, that in civil commotions the soldiery 
should be kept invisible, except at the precise moment 
when there is need of their active services. From the 
violation of this sound principle in the present instance 
ensued a catastrophe that sealed the doom of the Or- 
leans dynasty. 

A crowd of casual spectators had stopped, about ten- 
o'clock, near M. Guizot's house, attracted by the shouts of 
a few men and boys who wanted the inmates to light 
up. Just then a dense column of students and artisans 
came down the Boulevards — singing and shouting in 
honor of the popular victory. They were unarmed, 
showed no disposition to outrage, and, so far from 
appearing to entertain any revolutionary projects, many 
of them cried out " Vive Louis Philippe /" as lustily as 
they vented their execrations on his late minister. At 
the moment they had come within a few yards of the 
soldiers of the 14th Regiment, stationed before the 
hotel, a shot was heard. Instantly the whole line 
fired without warning along the Boulevards, making 
frightful carnage among the throng. More than a 
hundred persons, who saw the soldiers level, threw 
themselves on the ground in time to save their lives, 
but sixty-two men, women, and lads, belonging to 
every class of society, lay weltering in their blood. A 
squadron of Cuirassiers then charged, sword in hand, 
over the dead and wounded. The survivors fled in all 
directions to carry the frightful tidings to the most 
distant parts of the city. By and bye, ashamed of 
what they had done, the soldiers allowed the dead and 
dying to be removed. Seventeen unclaimed bodies 
were laid in a large cart f and, with torches flaming over 



38 FRANCE. 

the ghastly spectacle, the cart was dragged through 
the streets by a multitude raging and howling for 
revenge. No half-measures now ! No compromise 
with a detested system ! Nothing but the extinction 
of the monarchy could expiate the guilt of that 
treacherous, cold-blooded massacre ! As fast as the 
procession moved on, the street was closed behind it 
with barricades. Up rose the blood-red Republi- 
can flag ; the drums of the National Guard were 
heard without ceasing the whole night lono; ; the 
tocsin sounded from the church of St. Sulpice, sum- 
moning the inhabitants of the faubourgs ; detachments 
went from house to house asking for arms, which being 
freely given them, the receipt was notified by an 
inscription in chalk on the door, — " On a donni des 
drmesP* Not less than 150,000 men passed the 
night in preparing for battle. By next morning the 
streets were intersected by upwards of two thousand 
barricades, of the most formidable strength and 
dimensions. 

The explanation given by the repentant officer who 
had commanded the fatal volley before the Hotel des 
Affaires Etrangeres^ was that his horse's leg having 
been broken by the shot fired at the moment the 
crowd arrived, he thought they were come to attack 
him, and, in a rash moment, he gave the order to fire. 
It has never been officially declared by whom the first 
shot was fired : the story told by the National and 
repeated by the other Republican journals, was that a 
musket had gone off by accident in the garden of the 
hotel ; but it has since been very generally asserted, 
and without contradiction, so far as we are aware, that 
the act was deliberately done by Lagrange, the con- 
demned Lyons conspirator of 1832, afterwards a 
member of the National Assembly. This man is said 

* " They have given arms,'* 



RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES. 39 

to have avowed, that, finding affairs were likely after 
all to take a favorable turn for royalty, he adopted this 
desperate expedient in order to rouse the angry pas- 
sions of the multitude. 

The attempt to establish a Mole administration 
having failed, the King sent very late on Wednesday 
night for M. Thiers, who undertook to form a ministry, 
on condition that he might associate with him M. 
Odillon Barrot. The King had previously signed a 
decree appointing Marshal Bugeaud commander-in- 
chief of all the forces in Paris, both civic and military ; 
but, upon the refusal of the new ministry to grant him 
unlimited powers, the marshal resigned, and was 
replaced by General Lamorici^re. 

Hostilities were renewed at day-break, on Thursday, 
and for several hours discharges of musketry were 
heard in various directions, where the insurgents were 
contending with small bodies of the Municipal Guard. 
The troops of the line, too, were partially engaged, but 
the greater part of that force was already lost to the 
Government. Exhausted by more than fifty hours of 
harassing duty; left without rations through- the 
besotted negligence of the authorities, and saved from 
the pangs of hunger and thirst only by the bounty of 
the people; finally, seeing the National Guard now 
thoroughly identified with the insurgent cause, whole 
regiments reversed their muskets and gave up their 
ammunition to the people: several companies even 
surrendered their arms. 

A little before eight o'clock the new ministers walked 
down the Boulevards to the Tuileries, passing singly 
through the narrow openings left at the ends of the 
huge barricades that obstructed every avenue. They 
were loudly cheered. Two hours later, Odillon Barrot 
gave orders in person, in the Rue Richelieu, to a troop 
of Dragoons and the 21st Regiment of the line, to 
retire to their barracks. Here again he was favorably 



40 FRANCE. 

greeted, but as he proceeded on bis way his reception 
grew colder. His voice was drowned by shouts of 
" Down with Louis Philippe !" " Hurrah for the 
Republic !" and that cry, once begun, was repeated 
without ceasing from one end of Paris to the other. 
At eleven o'clock, copies of a proclamation were posted 
in every street, announcing that orders had been given 
to cease firing ; they were torn down almost as fast as 
posted. 

The insurgents, now in undisputed possession of all 
Paris, except the Palais Royal and the Tuileries, began 
at twelve o'clock to concentrate their forces on those 
points. The Palais Royal was taken without a blow, 
but the little square in front of the main entrance was 
the scene of an awful conflict. The northern side of 
the Place du Palais Royal, opposite the facade of the 
palace, was occupied by the Chateau d'Eau, an oblong 
stone building of great strength, in which were posted 
one hundred and thirty-eight soldiers of the 14th 
Regiment of the line, and some Municipals. Many 
overtures were made to induce these men to retire ; 
but no arguments or entreaties could make them 
swerve from what they deemed the strict line of duty 
and honor. After much parleying to no purpose, the 
attack began at half past twelve, and from that hour to 
half past one the firing was incessant. The loss sus- 
tained by the assailants was very great, for they fought 
without cover, exposed to the steady discharges of the 
besieged at point blank distance. At last a number of 
carriages, dragged from the royal stables, were run up 
to the walls of the post, straw mattresses and fagots 
were heaped over and round them, and the whole 
were fired. Again the soldiers were entreated to 
surrender and save their lives ; they answered only 
with their muskets, wounding General Lamoriciere 
himself, who, with brave humanity, had gone close up 
to them and commanded them to desist. The flames 



FLIGHT OF LOUIS THILIPPE. 41 

at length laid hold of the building in two places ; but 
still its defenders continued to pour volley after volley, 
until the floor was burning beneath their feet. They 
then tried to rush out at the gate, but were shot down 
or bayoneted in the attempt, and not a man of them 
escaped. The firemen who afterwards explored the 
smouldering ruins of the Chateau d'Eau took out from 
them the remains of fifty-three bodies. The rest of 
the garrison must have been wholly consumed, for the 
statement that some of them had escaped by a back- 
way is contradicted by the fact that none such existed. 
From the fall of the Chateau d'Eau to the flight of 
Louis Philippe scarcely a quarter of an hour elapsed. 
It was fortunate for him and his family that the 
insurgents had not at once assailed the Tuileries, instead 
of allowing themselves to be kept in check for an hour 
by the little garrison in the Place du Palais Royal. 
The interval was spent by the ministers, deputies, and 
others about the King, in urging him to abdicate, as 
the only means left by which he might save, not only 
the rights, but the lives of his family. The troops col- 
lected for the defence of the Tuileries consisted of three 
or four thousand infantry, with six pieces of cannon, two 
squadrons of cavalry, and some Municipals. Had this 
force been well affected, it might have made a formida- 
ble, but hardly a successful resistance. The King, 
however, having himself reviewed the troops at eleven 
o'clock that morning, had been enabled to judge from 
the jaded looks of the men, and from the spiritless 
tone in which they uttered the customary cry of " Vive 
le Roi /"* how little they were to be depended on. 
The arguments in favor of an abdication derived ter- 
rible cogency from the loud and increasing roar of 
musketry within gunshot of the palace, and wrung a 
tardy assent from the infatuated monarch. He signed 

* " Long live the King." 



42 FRANCE. 

the act transferring the crown to his grandson, under 
the regency of the Duchess of Orleans ; yet still, as if 
loath to quit the scene of his vanished greatness, he 
lingered idly in the palace until he could no longer 
remain without imminent peril of life. The troops 
were retreating from the palace-yard, by order of the 
Duke de Nemours, and columns of combatants from the 
Chateau d'Eau were already rushing into the Place 
du Carrousel, when Louis Philippe and the Queen 
made their exit on foot from the palace, by the door 
opening on the gardens. They had reached the very 
spot where Louis XVI. perished on the scaffold, when 
they were hemmed in and compelled to halt by a sud- 
den pressure of the crowd. Louis Philippe turned 
round quickly, held up his hat in the air, and uttered 
some words which were inaudible amid the uproar. 
An officer, seeing the danger, cried out, " Messieurs, 
spare the King !" To which a stentorian voice replied, 
" We are not assassins — let him go !" " Aye, aye, let 
him go !" became the general cry. The fugitives then 
hurried to a spot where stood two low one-horse car- 
riages ; the King and Queen stepped into one of them, 
and drove off at full gallop towards St. Cloud, 
escorted by about two hundred cavalry. 

The populace were too busy to pursue them, if, 
indeed, the thought of shedding uselessly the blood of 
the utterly fallen monarch ever crossed the mind of 
any among his victors The ex-King might go un- 
scathed, while the people were ransacking the still 
warm lair from which he had been routed. They 
scampered in grotesque triumph through the gorgeous 
rooms, lolled on the soft chairs and sofas, and seated 
themselves by turns on the throne, each impersonating 
for a moment his own most dignified conception of the 
sovereignty of the people. This ceremony ended, the 
covering of the throne, and the splendid banners and 
awnings that overhung it, were torn into shreds, which 



FLIGHT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE. 43 

were distributed as relics among* the invaders, and the 
dismantled seat of extinct royalty was carried in long 
procession to the site of the old Bastile, and there 
smashed to atoms and burnt at the foot of the Column 
of July. Meanwhile, both in the Tuileries and the 
Palais Royal, every scrap of the King's personal pro- 
perty, every vestige of his individual existence — por- 
traits, pictures, busts, statues, &c, were ruthlessly 
demolished, and flung* out of the windows to feed the 
bonfires blazing below ; whilst in the apartments of 
the widowed Duchess of Orleans and of the Prince de 
Joinville, a tender and respectful feeling* arrested the 
hands of the spoilers, and nothing was injured, or even 
displaced, except a half-eaten breakfast laid out on the 
Duchess's table, which was clean devoured by the 
famishing* people. For the rest, the words ProprUtt 
nationale* chalked on the walls or the floor, were suf- 
ficient to protect the contents of the rooms thus placed 
under the safeguard of the commonwealth. No pecu- 
lation was tolerated. Every man as he left the build- 
ing was narrowly searched by guards stationed round 
it by the people themselves, and instant death was the 
invariable doom of the detected thief. A sum of 
331,000 francs, found in the strong-box of the Civil 
List, the crown diamonds, a large quantity of plate 
and jewels, and other articles of great value, were 
conveyed in safety to the Bank of France, by men 
who probably had not so many sous\ among* them as 
would have bought each of them a meal of bread. 

So abrupt was the flight of the ex-King and Queen, 
that they were indebted for the means of continuing* it 
to a contribution of 200 francs made by the officers at 
Trianon ; but a further supply was secretly sent them on 
the following day by the Provisional Government. They 

* " National property." 

t The sou is a copper coin somewhat less than a cent in 
value, 



44 FRANCE. 

arrived the same night at Dreux, where they were har- 
bored by a trusty farmer ; and having disguised them- 
selves in mean attire — the King without wig or whiskers, 
his features concealed under a red woollen comforter, and 
green spectacles — they travelled through byways, and 
by night to the coast, where an English steamer was 
waiting to receive them. Stormy weather prevented 
their embarkation for two days ; but on Thursday 
evening, March 2, they left the shores of France, and 
landed at noon next day at Newhaveu. The Dukes 
de Nemours and Montpensier, and their wives, had 
previously arrived in England, after various adventures 
in their scattered flight ; and the Prince de Joinville 
and the Duke d'Aumale came some weeks afterwards 
from Algeria. 



CLOSING SCENE IN THE CHAMBER. 45 



CHAPTER II. 
FRANCE. 

FROM THE REJECTION OF THE ORLEANS DYNASTY TO THE OPEN- 
ING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 

The Chamber of Deputies assembled on the 24th 
February, to receive the King's abdication, and ratify 
the appointment of the Regent. About half-past one 
o'clock the Duchess of Orleans entered with her two 
sons, and the Dukes of Nemours and Montpensier. 
Their presence excited some threatening murmurs in 
the crowd that surrounded the building, but the feel- 
ings manifested within doors were generally those of 
respect and sympathy. When M. Dupin announced 
that the King had abdicated in favor of his grandson, 
and had appointed the Duchess of Orleans to be 
Regent, the intimation was received with mingled cries 
of approbation and displeasure, the former greatly pre- 
dominating ; but clear above the din was heard one 
sonorous voice proclaiming the fatal sentence — " It is 
too late!" 

When some degree of quiet was restored, M. Marie 
was heard urging the necessity of appointing a Pro- 
visional Government, on the ground that it was not 
competent to the Chamber to repeal the law by which 
the Regency had been already conferred on the Duke 
of Nemours. M. Cremieux spoke to the same effect, 
and warned the Chamber not to follow the disastrous 
example of the Chamber of 1830, which had usurped 



46 FRANCE. 

the powers of a constituent assembly. "Odillon Barrot 
advocated the claims of the Duchess of Orleans and 
her son, in language that seemed in unison with the 
feelings of the larger portion of the Deputies. M. de 
la Rochejaquelin, the leader of the Legitimists, insisted 
that the choice of a new Government belonged of right 
to the nation itself, and not to the Chamber ; but he 
had not uttered many sentences when a vast crowd of 
armed men rushed in tumultuously, and occupied the 
floor, the Deputies' benches, and the tribune, shouting 
out, " No King !" " Vive la R£publique /" 

The President having put on his hat, in token of the 
suspension of the proceedings, the uproar became still 
more violent. " Off with the hat !" resounded on all 
sides ; muskets were pointed at the President's head, 
and for some moments a general massacre appeared 
inevitable. In the midst of the confusion several Depu- 
ties and National Guards threw themselves between 
the mob and the Duchess of Orleans, and hurried her 
off by a private door. The Duke de Nemours jumped 
out of a window into the garden, where he exchanged 
his lieutenant-general's uniform for that of a private in 
the National Guard.* 

The President still retained his seat, notwithstanding 
the imminent peril to which he was exposed ; and the 
debate was renewed in the wildest disorder, deputies 
and strangers shouting together to obtain a hearing, 
the mob bellowing, and flourishing their weapons. 
Ledru Rollin having presented himself at the tribune, 
there was some abatement of the clamor, and he was ena- 
bled to inveigh against the project of a Regency, and to 
demand a Provisional Government, — not named by 
the Chamber, but by the people. Lamartine was then 

* The Duchess of Orleans passed the night at the Hotel des 
Invalides, and did not leave Paris until the following Wednes- 
day ; when she departed for Germany, escorted to the frontier 
by M. Marrast, Member of the Provisional Government. 



THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 47 

called for on all sides, and listened to with unanimous 
approbation whilst he insisted on a direct appeal to the 
decision of the nation, and deprecated, in allusion to 
the mistake committed in 1830, any recourse "to those 
subterfuges — to those surprises — to those emotions of 
which, as you perceive, a country sooner or later re- 
pents, in order to maintain one of those fictions which 
have no stability, and which leave no solid traces be- 
hind them." He was proceeding in this strain when 
a furious knocking was heard at the door of one of the 
galleries. In a moment more it was battered down, 
and a multitude of armed men rushed in, shouting 
" Down with the Chamber ! down with the Deputies !" 
and levelling their muskets at the persons in the body 
of the chamber. One man pointed his musket at the 
tribune, but was immediately checked by cries of " Do 
not fire ! it is M. de Lamartine who is speaking." The 
President now declared the Chamber adjourned, and 
withdrew. So ended the last sitting of the Chamber 
of Deputies. 

The miscellaneous concourse that now thronged the 
hall carried the veteran Radical, Dupont de l'Eure, to 
the chair, and the form of proposing and voting the 
names of the members who should constitute the Pro- 
visional Government was gone through in the midst of 
indescribable noise and confusion. The names pro- 
claimed were those of Dupont de l'Eure, Arago, Lamar- 
tine, Ledru Rollin, Gamier Pages, Marie, and Cremieux. 
A procession was then formed to conduct the Provi- 
sional Government, with Lamartine at its head, to the 
Hotel de Ville, and the chamber was gradually evacu- 
ated. But before the crowd dispersed, Louis Philippe 
was shot in efhgy by a workman, who sent the contents 
of a double-barrelled fowling-piece through a large 
picture representing the Citizen King in the act of 
swearing fidelity to the Charter. 

When Lamartine and his colleagues arrived at the 



48 FRANCE. 

Hotel de Ville, they found it already occupied by a 
Provisional Government which had been nominated in 
the offices of the Rtforme and the National newspa- 
pers, and which claimed supreme authority by the 
very same title as its rival, namely, the suffrages of an 
indefinite multitude of the armed people. Three names, 
those of Arago, Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin, were 
common to both lists. A contest between the other 
claimants would have been followed by consequences 
incalculably disastrous ; it was therefore wisely resolved 
that the two embryo governments should coalesce, and 
accordingly Marrast, Flocon, Louis Blanc, and Albert, 
were added to the Provisional Government, first as 
Secretaries, and afterwards as ordinary members. 

The scenes which followed the installation of the 
Provisional Government at the Hotel de Ville were no 
less turbulent than that in which the Chamber of 
Deputies had been swept away. The mob poured into 
every part of the building, clamorously intruding even 
into the council-room of their elected rulers, and leav- 
ing them scarce breathing space for their deliberations. 
Still the Provisional Government pursued its labors, 
not always judiciously, but with a prompt and compre- 
hensive attention to the various exigencies of the 
moment, which was marvellous in men so harassed in 
body and mind. For sixty hours the members sat 
continually, drawing up decrees and proclamations, and 
issuing orders for the furtherance of every branch of 
the public service, whilst often in the midst of these 
prodigious exertions \hey had to hurry out and answer 
for their lives to the questioning of fresh hosts of pas- 
sionate and suspicious inquirers. Among their earliest 
measures the following may be mentioned as pregnant 
with the most important consequences : — The abolition 
of the penalty of death for political offences ; the re- 
adoption of the tricolor, which had been for a while 
supplanted by the ill-omened red flag ; the creation of 



THE REPUBLIC. 49 

National Workshops ; the appointment of a Govern- 
ment Commission for Workmen, under the presidency 
of Louis Blanc and Albert ; and the creation of twenty- 
four battalions of the Garde Mobile. The soldiers of 
this new force, receiving the high pay of thirty sous a 
day, four times as much as the soldiers of the line, all 
belonged to that singular class the gamins de Paris, 
genuine tiger-monkeys, delighting in the smell of gun- 
powder, foremost in every fray, and ready for every 
kind of mischief, from mere exuberance of animal 
spirits and want of better occupation. How wisely 
Lamartine acted in enlisting these brave lads on the 
side of order was proved on many trying occasions : to 
them chiefly did Paris and France owe their salvation 
on the dreadful days of June. 

The Republic was at once proclaimed, and was ac- 
cepted by all classes with an unanimity for which there 
is hardly a parallel in history. Not a voice was raised 
in behalf of the fallen dynasty ; a week after the revo- 
lution, Louis Philippe was no more talked of than 
Hugh Capet. Never until the fall of the Citizen 
King had reversed all precedents, never could it have 
been believed that the worst of monarchs could be 
deposed without leaving behind him some party to 
work openly or in secret for his restoration ; but the 
day after Louis Philippe was shuffled off the throne 
there was not even the nucleus of an Orleanist party 
in France. Was there ever a more eloquent apology 
than was pleaded by this fact in behalf of the Revolu- 
tion of February ? 

Previously to February the Republican Party was 
but a small minority. It was not, therefore, by reason 
of any strong predilection felt for that form of govern- 
ment by the nation at large, that the Republic was 
accepted unanimously and without hesitation ; but 
because it was instinctively perceived that nothing but 
a Republic was possible under existing circumstances. 
D 3 



50 FRANCE. 

No better foundation could rational men have desired 
for the new institutions than this favorable disposition, 
this dispassionate conviction, entertained by the whole 
nation ; but it did not satisfy tl^e imperious zeal of a 
handful of political fanatics and schemers, who, arro- 
gating to themselves and their partisans the exclusive 
title of true Republicans, insisted on coercing all the 
rest of the population. Resentment and reaction were 
the natural and inevitable results, and France lost, for 
the consolidation of her Republic, an opportunity 
unique in the annals of the world. 

There were three distinct parties in the Provisional 
Government, — Moderates : Lamartine, Arago, Marie, 
Marrast, Dupont de l'Eure, Gamier Pages, Cremieux. 
Ultras : Ledru Rollin, Flocon. Socialists : Louis 
Blanc, Albert. Strong as was the majority on the 
Moderate side, it was often compelled by the inevitable 
force of circumstances to make dangerous concessions 
to the minority. For a long while the Provisional 
Government was quite unsupported by any armed 
force : the troops of the line had been removed from 
Paris : the National Guard was undergoing a vast 
process of reconstruction, and existed only as a disor-. 
ganized mass ; the Garde Mobile was an infant institu- 
tion ; in fine, the people were more masters of the 
Government than the Government of the people. 

The Socialists were the most dangerous section of 
the Government minority. The affair of the red flag 
was the first on which they displayed their pernicious 
tendencies. On the 24th of February a man, " insti- 
gated," says M. Goudchaux, " by Louis Blanc, proposed 
the red flag ; Lamartine resisted the proposal, and it 
was rejected. Next day, when Louis Blanc came to 
the council, a red flag was produced, and generally ac- 
cepted at his instance ; but M. Goudchaux vehemently 
declared that it should not be so, and he laid down his 
portfolio. Louis Blanc said there would be bloodshed, 



THE RED FLAG. 51 

and that M. Goudchaux would have to answer for it 
with his head ; he accepted that responsibility." To 
Lamartine France owes the suppression of that horrid 
emblem, the admission of which would have been a 
virtual surrender of the Republic into the hands of men 
who would have established a new reign of terror. 
Five times on the 25th of February he confronted as 
many furious mobs that broke into the Hotel de Ville, 
threatening the members of the Provisional Govern- 
ment with instant death if the colors of '92 were not 
adopted. Lamartine spoke, and all held their breath 
to listen, spell-bound in the very whirlwind of their 
passions by Ins genius and intrepidity. Never did elo- 
quence win a nobler victory than his, when, with swords 
brandished round him, and muskets levelled at his 
head, he uttered these touching words, — " Never will I 
adopt the red flag ; for the tricolor has gone the round 
of the world with the Republic and the Empire, with 
your liberties and your glories, whilst the red flag has 
only gone the round of the Champ de Mars, trailed 
through the blood of the people." The effect of this 
imagery was electrical ; the fierce multitude were af- 
.fected to tears, and left the place vowing to live and die 
under the tricolor flag, and filled with love and vene- 
ration for its high-souled defender. 

Defeated in the affair of the red flag, the Socialists 
next demanded the immediate appointment of a Minis- 
ter of Labor, whose business it should be to realize 
Louis Blanc's visionary theories. The Government 
refused to decree ' the " Organization of Labor," de- 
claring by the mouth of Lamartine that the doctrine so 
called was to them incomprehensible, and that as honest 
men they could not enter into an engagement with 
the people which they had no hope of fulfilling. By 
way of compromise, however, and perhaps with the in- 
tention of relieving themselves from the constant pre- 
sence of two of their least desirable members, the 



52 FRANCE. 

Government instituted, on the 28th of February, the 
Workman's Commission. This new parliament, sitting 
in the palace of the Luxembourg, became at once a 
despotic trades' union, armed with legislative powers, 
and a normal school for the propagation of principles 
subversive of the rights both of labor and of capital. 
M. Louis Blanc's scheme for the organization of labor 
was briefly this : 1. The Government was to found 
social factories, workshops, &c, and gradually to be- 
come the sole employer of all the artisans in the land ; 
2. thereby abolishing competition. 3. All persons 
employed in these workshops were to receive equal 
wages, without regard to their respective skill and assi- 
duity. 4. All profits on capital, beyond legal interest, 
were to be extinguished. • 

The positive enactments issued from the Luxem- 
bourg were such as might have been expected from 
the above programme. On the 1st and 2d of March 
decrees were signed by Louis Blanc and Albert, fixing 
the duration of a day's labor at ten hours, and abolish- 
ing marchandage ; that is, the customary interposition 
of sub-contractors between the capitalist and the work- 
man, without which the two latter would in most cases 
be left to seek each other in vain. The Commission 
also took upon itself to regulate the amount of wages 
in several trades, always, of course, to the apparent 
advantage of the workmen. The natural result was 
speedily seen in the closing of many establishments, 
and the discharge of all the hands employed in them. 
Meanwhile the unfortunate dupes of the Blanc system 
of economy were laboring with might and main still 
further to annihilate the means by which they lived. 
A rigorous proscription was declared against all foreign 
workmen, especially the English, who were hunted out 
of the country without time being allowed them to ob- 
tain the arrears of wages due to them, or to dispose of 
their household effects. Under the reign of Liberty, 



THE ATELIERS NATION AUX. 53 

Fraternity, and Equality, French Republicans repeated 
the cruel and stupid blunder committed by the bigoted 
Spaniard of the seventeenth century, in the expulsion 
of the Moors, and with consequences no less disastrous 
to themselves. 

The creation of the Ateliers nationaux* founded 
about the same time as the Luxembourg Commission, 
has been erroneously imputed to Louis Blanc. These 
crude substitutes for a poor-law were forced upon M. 
Marie, the Minister of Public Works, by the pressing 
exigencies of the times. The stoppage of trade caused 
by the revolution had deprived thousands of workmen 
of bread ; to leave them to hunger and despair would 
have been no less impolitic than inhuman : accordingly 
the Ateliers nationaux were established upon the plan 
submitted by M. Emile Thomas to the assembled 
mayors of Paris. Had the problem been to create an 
army of mercenary mutineers, it could not have been 
more successfully solved than by that gentleman. The 
recruits were enrolled in squads, brigades, companies, 
battalions, services, and arrondissements. Each squad 
consisted of ten men and a chef d'escouade^ Five 
squads formed a brigade, commanded by a brigadier ; 
four brigades a company, commanded by a lieutenant ; 
four companies a battalion, commanded by a chef de 
bataillon ; three battalions a service, commanded by a 
chef de service. At the head of each of the twelve 
arrondissements of Paris there was a field officer, having 
under him a variable number of services. The central 
board of management, installed at Monceaux, alone 
employed two hundred and fifty clerks and other func- 
tionaries, and yet the accounts were kept in the most 
slovenly manner. The system of payment was so ill- 
contrived, that in many instances the same man ob- 



* National Workshops. 

t Commander of the Detachment. 



54 FRANCE. 

tainecl pay in two, three, or four different squads ; and 
the officers, both chief and subaltern, could easily em- 
bezzle indefinite sums.. A census, taken on the 7th of 
June, showed only an effective force of 105,000 men, 
and even this was perhaps an exaggerated estimate, 
whereas the pretended number for whom the state had 
paid up to that day was 119,000. Furthermore, a 
very large per centage of the actual number necessarily 
consisted of criminals of various degrees, from the petty 
thief to the monster of wickedness, sent forth from the 
bagnios of- Brest or Toulon. These men could not fail 
to obtain that ascendency over their comrades which, 
in all undisciplined gatherings, belongs to the most 
audacious and unscrupulous. They became the leading- 
spirits of the ateliers, and under their guidance it is 
easy to conceive how rapidly the moral character of 
the honest workmen must have deteriorated. 

The chief employment found for the men of the 
Ateliers nationaux was earthwork — almost literally 
digging holes and filling them up again — at an expense 
of eight francs per cubic metre, which should have cost 
only as many sous. There never was real work for 
more than 2000 men. Upon this 8000 men were 
nominally employed, at the rate of 1 4 francs a week ; 
all the rest were paid eight francs, in return for which 
nothing was required of them but that they should take 
the trouble to attend daily and receive their money. 
With this slight restriction they were free to spend 
their whole time in planning mischief in their clubs, 
and practising it by means of more or less riotous 
" demonstrations." If, says M. Panisse, instead of 
creating the Ateliers nationaux, in which work was a 
fiction, the Government had lent its aid to the large 
industrial establishments, it would not nave thrown 
every trade into confusion, and thus unconsciously pro- 
duced one of the chief causes of the insurrection of 
June. If half the sum that was lost upon unproductive 



THE CLUBS OF PARIS. 55 

works had been lent to the great firms, the workmen 
would then have been profitably employed each in his 
proper place ; order would have been maintained ; the 
rich would have recovered confidence; and business 
would have returned to its ordinary course. 

Immediately after the downfall of the monarchy had 
given the Parisians unlimited freedom of meeting to- 
gether, political clubs sprang up in all quarters of the 
city. Then number, which at one time exceeded 140, 
fluctuated considerably ; but we may reckon an average 
of a hundred clubs with a thousand members each, sit- 
ting nightly during the first months of the Republic to 
discuss the social and political questions of the day, take 
measures for the approaching elections, examine the 
candidates, and decide upon their respective merits. 
In the ultra-Republican clubs the candidates for the 
grade of field officer in the National Guards were in- 
variably tried by one touchstone : they were required 
to answer categorically this question, — " If the Assembly 
be not republican in the fullest acceptation of the word, 
will you march against it ?" The most dangerous of 
all the clubs were those respectively presided over by 
Blanqui and Barbes, the Central Club of the Society 
of the Rights of Man, and the Club of Clubs, — all of 
them armed confederations. 

The Society of the Rights of Man had existed for 
many years ; it numbered 20,000 members in Paris, 
14,000 in the department of the Seine, and was essen- 
tially a permanent conspiracy. Its constitution, like 
that of the Jesuits, imposed on every member " the 
absolute abnegation of his individuality for the service 
of the Society ; in return for which the Society pledges 
itself to stand up bodily to defend him if there be yet 
time, to avenge him if he be no more. * * The 
constitution of the Society being altogether military, 
the members must all hold themselves in constant 
readiness for service, whether in arms or otherwise, 



56 FRANCE. 

whenever the Central Committee shall have so' decreed. 
If any one fail to obey the call, he shall not be allowed 
to 'plead in excuse either family ties or his personal 
affairs," &c. 

The Club of Clubs was a central institution composed 
of delegates from the other clubs, three from each. It 
particularly applied itself to secure the return of ultra- 
Kepublicans in the elections for the National Assembly, 
to which end it employed five or six hundred emissa- 
ries, who were sent to every town, village, and hamlet 
in France, and were paid each ten francs a day out of 
funds supplied by the Ministry of the Interior. This 
club was founded by Sobrier, and was held in his house, 
No. 16 Rue Rivoli, which he had converted into an 
arsenal. The Provisional Government having, on the 
24th of February, appointed Caussidiere to the Pre- 
fecture of Police, an office which Sobrier had destined 
for himself, the latter, with the consent of his successful 
rival, established a free corps, in nominal connexion 
with the regular police, but really independent of all 
authority but his own. 

As far as regarded the repression of crimes against 
person and property, Caussidiere's administration was 
the most efficient ever known in Paris. Never had the 
capital enjoyed such an immunity from the ordinary 
kinds of offences incident to great cities as during the 
two months and a half subsequent to the 24th of Feb- 
ruary. Caussidiere's Republican Guard, and especially 
that favorite portion of it which he called his Montag- 
nards, were a terror to all the thieves of Paris, and the 
more so because the prefect acted on the adage, " Set a 
thief to catch a thief;" or, to use his own expression, 
he made it his business to work out order through dis- 
order. Unfortunately he pursued the same system in 
political matters, playing the part of a faction leader 
rather than of a magistrate, and acting upon *his own 
individual views, without regard to those of the Govern- 



MARC CAUSSIDIERE. 57 

ment, often too in direct opposition to them. " Up to 
the 15th of May," says M. Pagnerre, Secretary-general, 
" the Government had really no police, either in the 
Ministry of the Interior or in the Prefecture itself." The 
inveterate habits of the conspirator clung to the police 
minister, and a natural and mutual sympathy always 
subsisted between him and those who conspired against 
the Government under which he held office. Cunning, 
close, and secret, yet with an air of blunt, cordial sin- 
cerity, that disarmed suspicion ; treated with indulgence 
by his superiors from necessity, as well as in consider- 
ation of his long services and sufferings for the Re- 
publican cause ; beloved by the lower classes for his 
courage and soldierly bearing, his energy of character, 
his homely goodnature, his easy plebeian eloquence 
and rough motherwit ; Caussidiere was a man whom 
the Provisional Government could not have provoked 
without great danger, yet whom it was almost fatal to 
trust. 

The evil effects of the Luxembourg Commission, the 
Ateliers nationaux, and the Clubs, were immensely 
aggravated by the reciprocal action of those pernicious 
institutions ; and all three combined to inflict deadly 
injury on public and private credit, beggaring the na- 
tional exchequer, annihilating the value of vast 
amounts of property, and destroying the main springs 
of industry. For the first fortnight after the 24th of 
February, the feeling of the Provisional Government 
as to the finances of the country, or at least the lan- 
guage they held, was that of high confidence, inso- 
much that they began paying in advance on the 6 th 
of March the dividends due on the 2 2d. They had 
found a large balance in the Treasury — 135,000,000 
francs in specie, and 55,000,000 in securities. On 
the *7th of March the minister issued a proclamation, 
expressing no diminution of confidence, but recom- 
mending that the taxes should be paid in advance, as 
3* 



58 FRANCE. 

a measure quite sufficient " to meet all the financial 
difficulties, to provide against which was an imperious 
dictate of prudence." But two days more brought a 
woeful change. A decree of the 9th of March sus- 
pended the payments of the Savings' Bank, the de- 
posits in which amounted to 14,000,000 sterling. 
On the 15th, the bank of France suspended cash 
payments ; and on the next day the treasury bonds, in 
circulation to the amount of nearly 11,000,000 sterling, 
were declared payable only in five per cent, stock at par, 
the price being then 69. Meanwhile bank after bank 
was failing, commercial paper ceased to be negotiable, 
gold and silver were hoarded or sent out of the country, 
and there was an end to all kinds of trade except in 
the merest necessaries of life. To add to the perplexi- 
ties of the Treasury, the contractors of the loan agreed 
for in November with the fallen Government threw 
up their contract, choosing rather to pay the stipulated 
forfeit of 1,000,000 sterling than to advance the 
10,720,000/. that remained due on account of the 
loan. Finally, the Provisional Government were driven 
to the melancholy expedient of decreeing an addition 
of 45 per cent, to the direct taxes. 

With Ledru Rollin for Minister of the Interior, the 
vast influence of that department was entirely in the 
hands of the party that invented the distinction be- 
tween Republicans of the Eve and Republicans of the 
Morrow — de la veille et du lendemain ; thus dividing 
the French into two hostile camps, or rather into 
a small dominant class on the one side, and on 
the other a subject class, comprising the great bulk of 
the nation. One of Ledru Rollin's first official acts 
was to despatch commissaries to every department and 
chief town of France, with carte blanche * to precipi- 
tate the work of the revolution in their respective cuV 

* « Full power." 



CIRCULARS AND COMMISSARIES. 59 

tricts. With the culpable negligence that marked his 
whole administrative career, the minister exercised no 
sort of previous inquiry into the merits of the persons 
whom he appointed to these important offices. The 
consequence was that, with a few honorable excep- 
tions, the commissaries did their utmost to disgust and 
exasperate all honest men. In many towns the in- 
habitants were goaded into insurrection by their intole- 
rable tyranny and knavery. The commissary for 
Havre was a criminal who had served out his time as 
a galley-slave. 

M. Ledru Rollin's first circular to his commissaries 
was made public early in March. A single line from 
this lengthy document will be sufficient to account for 
the storm of indignation it excited. " What are your 
powers ? — They are unlimited." It was worth while 
to have made a revolution, at an incalculable cost 
of public and private suffering, in order to pass 
under the unlimited powers of a M. Sauriac, or of 
his honorable colleague the ex-galley slave, commissary 
for Havre. It is true that Ledru Rollin was not the 
author of the outrageous circulars bearing his name, 
nor of the Bulletin de la Rtyublique, a sort of placard 
newspaper, issued from the Ministry of the Interior, 
and which did almost as much mischief as the circu- 
lars. Jules Favre wrote the latter ; the most offensive 
of the bulletins were the work of George Sand (Mme. 
Dudevant). These facts have been pleaded in apology 
for Ledru Rollin ; to us they appear most damnatory, 
for the}?- argue levity, negligence, and foolhardiness. 
Why did he delegate his own work to unfit hands, or 
to any hands but his own ? Lamartine did not do so, 
though far more heavily tasked than his colleague. 
Why did he not even revise the documents he suffered 
to be published with his official sanction ? 

The indignation excited by the first circular was so 
great that Ledru Rollin would have been forced to re- 



60 FRANCE. 

tire, but for an incident that turned the current of 
opinion altogether in his favor. This was a foolish 
and singularly ill-tirned proceeding on the part of the 
ex-grenadiers and voltio-eurs of the National Guard. 
These men belonged to the wealthier classes, were dis- 
tinguished by certain badges, such as a bearskin 
cap, yellow epaulettes, &c, and claimed the right 
of selecting those who should be admitted into 
their ranks. These exclusive and aristocratic pre- 
tensions being clearly incompatible with the new 
order of things, it was decreed that, in the reconstruc- 
tion of the civic force, the select companies should be 
broken up and fused with the general mass. The 
companies insisted on retaining their privileges, marched 
to the Hotel de Ville, and preferred their demands to 
that effect in peremptory terms. They also mixed up 
the great political question of the circulars with 
their own paltry affair of yellow worsted, and con- 
cluded by stating that, if their wishes were not 
complied with, they would come armed the next day, 
March 16, to enforce them. They kept their promise, 
but found themselves anticipated and immensely out- 
numbered by their democratic comrades ; and, after 
being sharply reprimanded by the Government, and 
hooted and jeered by the populace, they were glad 
enough to slink away with whole skins. 

The first example of open sedition thus set by the 
bourgeoisie* was quickly imitated by their antagonists. 
On the 17th an assemblage of nearly 200,000 men 
marched in orderly procession to the Hotel de Ville, 
for the purpose, as they said, of encouraging the Go- 
vernment in its resistance to aristocratic dictation. In 
reality it was a demonstration planned by Caussidiere, 
in concert with the leaders of the anarchical clubs, in 

* This term is applied in France to the classes intermediate 
between the nobility and the laboring population. 



the 17th of march. 61 

order to overawe the moderate members of the Go- 
vernment. A deputation of about forty clubbists was 
received by the Provisional Government, and demand- 
ed that the elections for the National Guard and the 
Assembly should be postponed to a distant date. To 
prolong- the interregnum was the constant policy of the 
anarchists, whilst Lamartine, and those who thought with 
him, were desirous to resign their provisional dictatorship 
as soon as possible into the hands of a regularly consti- 
tuted authority. The members of the Government, 
not excepting Louis Blanc and Ledru Rollin, all spoke 
in firm and becoming language on this critical occa- 
sion, refusing to give any answer whatever to demands 
backed by a display of force. The crowd below was 
not yet fully ripe for mischief; some members of the 
deputation spoke in support of the Government, and 
the machinations of the anarchists were for that time 
defeated. Eventually the opening of the Assembly 
was postponed for a fortnight longer, in order to give 
time previously for the complete organization of the Na- 
tional Guard. The 15th of May showed that this was 
no superfluous precaution. 

The foreign policy of the French Republic, as enun- 
ciated by Lamartine in his circular of the 4th of March, 
was dignified and pacific. ♦ His declarations were in 
substance as follows : — France sincerely desires peace : 
if war must come, she at least will not have been the 
aggressor. She regards the treaties of 1815 as no 
longer existing de jure, but she admits the territorial 
limitations fixed by them as existing de facto, and as 
matters to be modified hereafter by common accord. 
She will not attack her unoffending neighbors, " nor 
exercise an underhand or incendiary propaganda among 
them ;" she will not obtrude her aid where it is not de- 
sired ; but she holds an army of observation in readi- 
ness to cross the Alps, upon the first cry for succor ad- 
dressed to her by Switzerland or Italy. 



62 FRANCE. 

All the cabinets of Europe have acknowledged the 
good faith of the Provisional Government in its for- 
eign relations. Though it could not prevent the inva- 
sion of Belgium, Germany, and Savoy, by armed refu- 
gees from those countries, aided by some refractory 
Frenchmen ; yet on all such occasions it did its utmost 
to preserve the neutrality of the French territory, and 
hinder the abuse of its hospitality. In pursuing this 
honorable line of conduct, the Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs had to contend sometimes, as in the case of the 
Poles, against his own sympathies and those of his 
nation ; sometimes, as in the Belgian affair, against 
the indiscretion of a colleague. Fifteen hundred Bel- 
gians set out from Paris about the end of March, to 
revolutionize their own country. The purpose of the 
expedition having been made known to M. Ledru Rol- 
lin by some pupils of the Ecole Polytechnique, who ac- 
companied it, he said that, as a minister, he could not 
have a hand in the affair, though, individually, he ap- 
proved of it : but he supplied the young men with 
money and a letter to the Government commissioner 
at Lille, and that functionary armed the legion with 
muskets surreptitiously procured from the arsenal, 
under pretence of arming the National Guard. Mean- 
while, the Government, b<?ing informed of what was 
doing, gave warning to the Belgian authorities, and 
ordered back the Polytechnique students. The le- 
gion crossed the frontier, was met by a military 
force at Risquons-tout, and routed with considerable 
loss. 

For a month after the dangerous crisis of the 1*7 th 
of March, the Provisional Government was left to the 
enjoyment of comparative quiet, whilst the Parisians 
were occupied with the election of officers of the Na- 
tional Guard, or giving vent to their redundant vivacity 
in planting whole groves of poplars all over Paris, 
firing feux-de-joie, and compelling the inhabitants to il- 



THE 16TH OF APRIL. 63 

luminate in honor of the plantation and baptism of 
these " Trees of Liberty.' ' But the conspirators of the 
clubs were not idle ; they matured a plot to overthrow 
the moderate section of the Provisional Government, 
and substitute for it a so-called Committee of Safety. 
Two vast meetings were to be held on the 16th of April, 
one in the Champ de Mars, for the election of fourteen 
field-officers of the National Guard, and another in the 
Hippodrome, consisting of the men belonging to the 
Ateliers nationaux. The conspirators determined to 
avail themselves of the materials of insurrection thus 
collected, and march both bodies against the Hotel de 
Ville. 

But the Government had timely information of their 
designs. At six o'clock in the morning Lamartine 
sent messengers all over town to collect the National 
Guard, and such of the workmen as were well affected 
to the Government. At eleven o'clock Ledru Rollin, 
who indignantly repudiated all connexion with the con- 
spiracy, called on Lamartine, and at his request instant- 
ly gave orders to beat the rappel. The other members 
of the Government were, meanwhile, taking such mea- 
sures in their respective quarters as the exigency de- 
manded ; all except Louis Blanc and Albert, who have 
never accounted for their mysterious absence on that 
day from the post of duty. The call of the Govern- 
ment was responded to by 150,000 men of the Na- 
tional Guard, the Garde Mobile, the schools, the Fau- 
bourg St. Antoine, <fcc. The Hotel de Ville was sur- 
rounded by an army of defence, the bridges were in- 
vested, and when the columns from the Champ de 
Mars, bearing on their banners incendiary mottoes dic- 
tated by Louis Blanc, had reached the Pont Neuf, they 
found the passage intercepted. At last a portion of 
them, being allowed to pass under good guard, presented 
themselves to the Provisional Government, protested 
their innocence of any hostile intention, and stated that 



64 FRANCE. 

the purpose of demonstration was only to make an of- 
fering of money for the public service. The plot was 
crushed without a blow. When all was over, Louis 
Blanc made his appearance at the Hotel de Ville. 

Fortified by its bloodless victory of the 16th, the 
Provisional Government was now enabled to bring 
back the troops of the line to Paris, with the cordial 
approbation of the National Guard. On Thursday, 
April 20, was celebrated the grand Fete of Fraternity, 
in which eight regiments of cavalry, thirteen of infantry, 
three of artillery, and all the civic soldiers of Paris and 
the banlieue, defiled before the Provisional Government ; 
and not a single instance of angry feeling disturbed the 
harmony of the day. 

On the 23d all France was called to exercise the 
newly-acquired right of Universal Suffrage, in the elec- 
tion of 900 members of the National Constituent 
Assembly. The vast operation of receiving, classifying, 
counting, and reporting, the votes of nearly 10,000,000 
electors, was completed within less than a week, and 
with a general quiet, facility, and precision, to which 
there were but few and unimportant exceptions. The 
result of the elections was highly favorable to the Mo- 
derate party, and totally at variance with the predic- 
tions of those theorists who held that violence must be 
the prevailing tone of a house elected by universal suf- 
frage, and that its members would, for the most part, 
belong to the same class of society as the majority of 
the electors. Of 34 members returned for Paris and its 
department, 1 only were ultras, and among these the 
only Socialists were Louis Blanc and Albert. Lamartine 
headed the poll with 259,000 votes ; the 24th and27th 
on the list wereLedru Rollin (131,587) and Louis Blanc 
(120,140). Lamartine was returned for ten several 
departments by an aggregate of 2,000,000 of votes. 

When the result of the elections was known, the 
anarchical faction flew to arms in Nantes, Amiens, 



OPENING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 65 

Marseilles, Rouen, and in one or two other towns ; but 
in all except the last named, they were put down with 
more or less facility. The insurrection of Rouen was 
not subdued without much bloodshed and two days' 
hard fighting (April 26 and 27), in which grape and 
cannot-shot were copiously used by the troops. The 
clubs of Paris took fire at this news, and issued inflam- 
matory placards, denouncing the National Guards of 
Rouen as assassins, the Government as hostile to the 
people, and the elections as reactionary. In the coun- 
cil-room of the Government Louis Blanc moved that 
the two generals in command at Rouen should be 
arrested. The ferment continued to increase daily, and 
it was feared that the meeting of the representatives 
would be the signal for civil war. 

Nevertheless, on the 4th of May, the National Con- 
stituent Assembly was installed under the most flattering 
auspices ; and the Provisional Government, in resigning 
its dictatorship, was enabled to declare, by the mouth 
of Lamartine : — 

" We have passed forty-five days without any other 
executive force than that wholly unarmed moral author- 
ity which the nation was pleased to acknowledge in us. 
% * * "\y e nave traversed more than two months 
of crisis, of suspended employment, of distress, of ele- 
ments of political agitation and social anguish, accumu- 
lated immeasurably in a capital of a million and a half 
of inhabitants ; we have traversed all this without 
having to grieve over property violated, or one life 
sacrificed to passion, or one proscription, one political 
imprisonment, one drop of blood shed in our name in 
Paris ! Descending from this long dictatorship, we can 
go out and mingle with the people in the public streets, 
without fearing that any one shall call us to account in 
the name of a single citizen, and say to us, ' What have 
you done with him ? ' " 



FRANCE. 



CHAPTER III. 
FRANCE. 

FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE TO THE 
INSURRECTION OF JUNE. 

Lamartine stood then in one of the loftiest positions 
of moral grandeur and well-earned popularity that ever 
rewarded the generous ambition of a patriotic statesman. 
The general voice of the country, and the wishes of a 
majority of the Assembly, designated him as the chief 
to whose hands should be committed the executive 
pow r er of the Republic. He refused to accept the sole 
direction of the Government, and from that moment his 
popularity declined continually, until he descended 
to the rank of a mere representative. The vilest slan- 
ders were heaped upon him with unsparing assidu- 
ity ; it was a labor of love for his malignant detractors, 
and many of his former admirers lent themselves 
too easily to the base work, betrayed by those vulgar 
impulses that oscillate between boundless admiration and 
unmeasured obloquy. Happily, no efforts of lying ma- 
lice could long obscure the brightness of a fame as pure, 
if not as radiant with success, as that of Washington. 
It was a sight to make the angels weep, when a man 
like Lamartine, stifling the agony of shame and grief 
that rent his noble heart, sat down to clear himself of 
the charge of theft and corruption, and to show, by a 
detailed exposure of his pecuniary affairs, that he had 



THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 67 

not served his country for lucre, but voluntarily sacri- 
ficed to the Republic, 26,000/. of his private fortune. 

Not only did La^nartine refuse to become President 
ad interim of the Republic, but he declared that he 
would not belong to any executive commission from 
which Ledru Rollin should be excluded. This deter- 
mination was very embarrassing to the Moderate party, 
and led them to entertain with some complacency the 
very objectionable scheme of having the ministers 
nominated directly by the Assembly. A committee 
reported in favor of this plan, and Odillon Barrot sup- 
ported it. Now it is curious to observe how, in their 
fear and dislike of Ledru Rollin, these Moderates 
sought protection against him and his followers in the 
very system afterwards propounded by that individual 
himself on ultra-democratic principles. Ledru Rollin 
is of opinion that the Republic ought not to have any 
President, and that the President of the Council 
of Ministers should be the head of the Executive. 
Lamartine strenuously resisted the proposal made by 
the Committee, and his views were adopted by a ma- 
jority of 28. Next day, May 10th, the following 
Executive Committee of five was appointed by ballot, 
the number of voters being 794 : — 

Arago 725 

Gamier Pages .715 

Marie . 702 

Lamartine . . . . , , . .645 
Ledru Rollin 458 

These figures are significant ; they mark the dissatis- 
faction with which the Assembly assented to a coalition 
between the party of the majority and that of the 
ultra-Republicans. As for the Socialists, they were 
entirely excluded from the new Government; Louis 
Blanc and Albert sank down to the ordinary level of 
representatives, whilst ail their colleagues in the late 



68 FRANCE. 

Provisional Government took office, either as members 
of the Executive Commission, or as ministers under 
that body. t 

The policy adopted by Lamartine on this, occasion 
was of such cardinal importance, that we must explain 
his motives in some detail. 

Good as well as evil resulted from the heterogeneous 
character of the Provisional Government. All the 
leading forms of public opinion had their representa- 
tives in that body ; and this, says M. Marie, " appears 
to me one of the causes that made it possible to main- 
tain a Government until the opening of the National 
Assembly." Lamartine was of opinion that the infant 
Republic was not yet strong enough to emancipate 
itself with safety from the same condition of existence. 
He knew that, with all Ledru Rollin's errors, the in- 
temperance of his language far outran that of his acts ; 
that he was a man with whom it was possible for an 
earnest but discreet Republican to live in tolerable 
official harmony ; that he repudiated all secret con- 
spiracies ; and, above all, that he had actually saved 
the country from a Socialist revolution on the 16th of 
April, by the promptitude with which he had given 
orders to beat the rappel. 

" To take the Government upon myself alone," says 
Lamartine, "to the exclusion of all my Republican 
colleagues of the 24th of February, would have been 
to create on the instant in the National Assembly a 
majority and a minority rancorously opposed to each 
other, — to form two parties on the very first day, when 
I wished to blend them together, for a while at least, 
though it were but in appearance, in a patriotic and 
republican unity of action ; it would have been to give 
leaders to those parties, and armies to those leaders. 
Intestine war in the head of the Republic could not 
fail to produce convulsions in the limbs. Once the 
majority and the minority had been sharply defined in 



THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 69 

the Assembly, every discussion would have been a 
storm, and every storm wOuld have had its echo and 
its repercussion out of doors. To divide the Assembly 
was to divide the Republic ; to divide it when it had 
but just begun to exist would have been to ruin it or 
plunge it into blood. For, in fine, I, as the Govern- 
ment, should have been obliged to choose between the 
majority and the minorit}^. I, a newcomer of February, 
should have been obliged to rely exclusively on the 
party of the Morrow against the exasperated party of 
the Eve. The Republic in my hands would forthwith 
have fallen under the suspicions of the Republicans of 
February. They would have entered into conflict with 
her, backed by the tribune, the press, the clubs, the 
recently dismissed delegates of the Luxembourg, the 
army of 100,000 men of the Ateliers nationaucc, the 
Bonapartists, the Terrorists, and the subversive Social- 
ists — all recruited under their hands into one opposi- 
tion phalanx. The National Assembly would have 
given battle to all these disciplined forces of disorder 
together. True : but vanquished, it would have been 
dissolved and replaced by an anarchical tyranny ; vic- 
torious, it would have been compelled to become vio- 
lent, and to retrograde to the system of the Convention. 
In either way, the pacific, constitutional, and almost 
unanimous Republic, which we all desire, would have 
been lost, and my inconsiderate ambition would have 
been the cause of its ruin. ** * * * 

" But, it is objected, ' You might at least have ab- 
stained from entering into the Executive Commission, 
and remained free and invulnerable in your isolation.' 

" That is true ; every selfish consideration tended 
that way : I should have grown in the public eye by 
standing aloof; my popularity would have remained 
entire, and I should have taken the easiest means to 
promote my own success as a candidate for any office. 
But what would have signified, the most promising 



70 FRANCE. 

candidateship when tlie Republic was no more ? Now 
to me it is evident, that had I withheld my name, 
which was then significant and a bond between parties, 
from the composition of the Executive Commission, 
the National Assembly would have formed a Govern- 
ment of a single color, taken exclusively from among 
the men unjustly suspected of resentment against the 
Republic. It is evident, too, that such a Government 
would instantly have created in the Assembly that 
very antagonism and those very ruptures which, in my 
opinion, would destroy or ensanguine the Republic. 
I did not hearken to the counsels of selfishness ; I con- 
sented, with a heavy heart, to annihilate myself, in 
order to combine in the Government every pledge of 
conciliation between the' admissible statesmen of the 
various great parties of the Revolution. 

" ' That is what has done all the mischief !' I hear 
people exclaim. ' That is what has done all the good, 
too !' say I. That is what has effected that the fac- 
tions have been, not destroyed, but decapitated and 
disunited ; and that instead of your having to tight 
them in one compact mass before the hour of your 
strength, they have beset you with isolated and impo- 
tent attempts, over which the Republic has triumphed 
with you. That is what has effected that we have still 
the unanimity of the National Assembly in all vital 
questions for the preservation of society, property, and 
our native land. That is what has effected that we 
shall have it still for a long time to come ; that we 
shall yet again become reconciled together in patriotic 
feeling on every day of danger ; and that we shall ex- 
tinguish with one common accord the sparks of dis- 
sension that are cast among us from without, but which 
we will not accept." 

One of those isolated and abortive attempts against 
the Assembly, to which Lamartine alludes in the abova 



THE 15th of may. 71 

extract, was made on Monday, May 15. On that day 
an immense multitude marched to the palace of the 
National Assembly, for the ostensible purpose of pre- 
senting a petition for immediate intervention in the 
cause of Poland. Orders had been given, in anticipa- 
tion of this movement, to occupy all the approaches to 
the palace with strong bodies of the civic troops ; but 
these orders were grossly violated by General Courtais, 
who had been specially appointed on the preceding 
day, and at his own request, Commander-in-chief of all 
the forces in Paris. Instead of barring the way over 
the bridge (Pont de la Concorde), he made the troops 
form two parallel lines on the footpaths. The crowd 
passed over without hindrance, and Courtais then gave 
orders in person to the Garde Mobile on duty within 
the walls of the palace to sheathe their bayonets, and 
drop their ramrods into the barrels of their muskets to 
show that they were not loaded. Meanwhile he had 
opened the gate to admit the bearers of the petition. 
He has himself acknowledged this fact, but alleged in 
excuse that he was deceived by a promise that only 
twenty-five persons should enter. The court of the 
building was immediately filled, and about three or 
four hundred of the mob rushed into the interior, 
shouting and waving flags, striding over the benches 
on which the Deputies were seated, and scuffling with 
them for possession of the tribune. At length Raspail 
was seen standing there with the petition in his hand, 
but could not obtain a hearing, until Louis Blanc, with 
the formal permission of the President, spoke a few 
words, entreating silence, " that the petition might be 
read ; that the right of petition might be consecrated ; 
and that it might not be said that, on entering within 
those walls, the people had by its clamors violated its 
own sovereignty." 

Raspail then began : a Citizens, we come in the 
name of 200,000 citizens, who are waiting at your 



1 2 FRANCE. 

doors " Here his voice was again overpowered 

by the outcries of the indignant representatives ; the 
mob retorted with threats to turn out those who inter- 
rupted their spokesman ; Louis Blanc again interposed 
as a moderator, and the petition was read in dumb 
show. The President then requested the people to 
withdraw, in order that their petition might be taken 
into consideration, and Barbes, as a member of the 
Assembly, joined in this recommendation. Blanqui, 
however, insisted on making a speech ; and not con- 
fining himself to the subject of Poland, he harangued 
on the merciless butcheries in Rouen, and on the suf- 
ferings of the working classes. " Give us a Ministry 
of Labor, with Louis Blanc at its head !" shouted the 
mob. Ledru Rollin endeavored to soothe them, and 
induce them to depart. " The people," he said, " had 
made known their wishes with regard to Poland ; they 
should be attended to, and their Polish brethren as- 
sisted." He then begged they would withdraw, and 
allow the Assembly to deliberate. " You must not 
deliberate ; you must vote !" was their reply. 

Whilst Blanqui was making his inflammatory speech 
within doors, his rival, Barbes, was addressing the mob 
outside from a balcony, with Albert by his side, and 
telling them that the doors should be thrown open, and 
the people should defile before the Assembly. Louis 
Blanc was then called for. He spoke with great ani- 
mation ; and then the three friends, with their arms 
twined round each other, and one large flag forming a 
drapeiy for the group, remained for ten minutes before 
the applauding spectators, forming what a witness calls 
a sort of " pose academique." 

Soon afterwards the multitude swarmed into the 
building, and the noise and confusion were terrific. 
The President and the representatives kept their seats, 
though threatened, insulted, and, in some instances, 
personally maltreated ; for the similar scene of Febru- 



THE 15th of may. 73 

ary 24 was fresh in their recollection, and forbade them 
to stir. As soon as Barbes could obtain silence, he 
moved that a law should be passed imposing an extra- 
ordinary contribution of forty millions sterling on the 
rich for the benefit of the laboring classes. The mob 
having confirmed this motion by acclamation, next 
resolved that Louis Blanc should be created Minister 
of Labor, and carried him round the hall in triumph, 
in spite, as it appears, of his entreaties that they would 
desist. At last word was brought that the drums of 
the National Guard were beating to arms. Barbes 
called on the Assembly to decree that the people of 
Paris had deserved well of the country, and that who- 
ever should order the rappel to be beaten should be 
declared a traitor ; and the President, M. Buchez, was 
compelled, under fear of an immediate massacre of the 
representatives, to sign several notes countermanding 
the beating of the drums. Huber then ascended the 
tribune, and in the name of the people declared the 
National Assembly dissolved. Thereupon, at four 
o'clock, the President put on his hat and left the hall, 
followed by the rest of the members. Barbes and 
Sobrier were raised on the arms of the multitude, and, 
with loud vivats for the Democratic and Social Repub- 
lic, the leading conspirators and a mass of their follow- 
ers departed for the Hotel de Ville. 

Meanwhile the troops, paralysed by the defection of 
General Courtais, left without orders, and uncertain 
how to act, were still further dispirited by the news of 
the dissolution of the Assembly. M. Arago, however, 
went among them, and reassured them ; and M. Du- 
clerc, the Minister of Finance, putting himself at the 
head of a battalion of the Garde Nation ale and the 
Garde Mobile, drove out the intruders from the palace 
of the Assembly. General Courtais was taken prisoner, 
and his epaulettes were torn off and flung in his face 
by some of the men lately under his command. The 
4 



74 FRANCE. 

representatives returned to their places, and after a 
brief address from Lamartine, who had been carried to 
the tribune by the soldiers, he and Ledru Rollin 
mounted their horses, and rode to the Hotel de Ville at 
the head of a column of troops, to attack the pseudo- 
Provisional Government. They entered without resist- 
ance, and in the identical room in which Robespierre 
and his associates were seized, they found Barbes, 
Albert, and other directors of the Social and Demo- 
cratic Republic, in the act of issuing decrees. Sobrier 
was arrested in a cafe, after an ineffectual attempt upon 
the Ministry of the Interior, whither he had repaired 
with 100 of his armed Montagnards to instal himself as 
minister. His house was ransacked by the National 
Guard, and 300 muskets and a large quantity of am- 
munition were seized in it, besides seven draft decrees 
of the intended Committee of Safety. All the prison- 
ers we have named, with about 130 of less note, were 
sent to Vincennes. Blanqui was not taken until the 
26th. Huber, after being arrested, was allowed to 
escape altogether. 

The criminal attempt of the 15th of May was com- 
mitted almost without premeditation, except on the 
part of a very few ringleaders. Even Barbes does not 
appear to have been an accessory before the fact, but 
to have been carried away by a sudden impulse of 
jealousy when he saw himself about to be supplanted 
as chief demagogue by Blanqui, whom he detested. 
Of the multitude that formed the first procession to the 
Assembly a great majority were really actuated by no 
other feeling than sympathy for the Poles ; a conside- 
rable number — among whom Raspail is, probably, to 
be included — sought only a pretext for enforcing the 
right of the people to present their petitions directly at 
the bar of the Assembly, as was customary under the 
Convention, and so bringing the national representatives 
under complete subjection to the clubs ; but the ulti- 



THE 15th of may. Y5 

mate design of overthrowing the Government was the 
secret of a few, and was not divulged until the work 
was half done. Blanqui, Sobrier, and Huber were the 
chief promoters of the plot. Caussidiere, Courtais, and 
others, lent it, at least, their passive assistance. Ledru 
Rollin's strong opposition to it is unquestionable, though 
even in remonstrating with the invaders of the Assem- 
bly he could not quite forego his inveterate habit of 
flattering the delusions and the unruly impulses of the 
multitude. Louis Blanc was guilty of the same fault 
in a far greater degree, but not, we believe, to the ex- 
tent of actual treason. The evidence respecting him, 
published by the Commission of Inquiry on the affairs 
of May and June, is, in some respects, very conflicting. 
Three facts, however, it clearly establishes, namely, that 
when the mob rushed out of the palace to proceed to 
the Hotel de Ville, his first care was to escape from the 
human torrent in which he was swept along ; that he 
did not go to the Hotel de Ville, though he expressed 
great anxiety about his friends there ; and that no sub- 
sequent act of his that day betrayed the least compli- 
city with the pseudo-Provisional Government. 

On the day following, Caussidiere offered the Assem- 
bly an explanation of his conduct ; but it was deemed 
so unsatisfactory that he resigned, not only his office, 
but also his seat as a representative. The whole con- 
duct of his Republican Guard was unequivocally hostile 
to the Government. "Vive Barbisf Vive Blanqm 7" 
they shouted in the hearing of their Prefect ; and it 
was evident, that had the insurrection been successful 
the Montagnards would have formed its first corps 
(Tarmee. The Government dissolved the Republican 
Guard, but immediately reconstructed it with little alte- 
ration, except an increase of its numbers, and the addi- 
tion of the word " Parisian " to its name. 

It was not long before fresh commotions were occa- 



76 FRANCE. 

sioned in Paris by the election of eleven representatives 
in lieu of those who had resigned, or who, having been 
doubly returned, had chosen to sit for some other 
department. The ballot took place on Sunday, the 4 th 
of June, without much excitement, and the result was 
made known on the 8 th. The names of the successful 
candidates made up a list of the most motley com- 
plexion, betokenhig the confusion into which public 
opinion had fallen. First stood Caussidiere ; then came 
Moreau, Goudchaux, and Changarnier, moderate Re- 
publicans ; Thiers, dreaded as the ablest representative 
of the old system, was fifth. The next two were 
Pierre Leroux, the dreamy founder of the Humanitarian 
school, and Victor Hugo, a political cipher, notwith- 
standing his literary renown. Louis Napoleon Bona- 
parte was the eighth ; and the list ended with Lagrange, 
who had provoked the massacre of the Boulevard des 
Capucines ; Boissel, the projector of the February ban- 
quet ; and Proudhon, a subtle propounder of social 
paradoxes, one of whose maxims is, " that property is 
robbery." 

Among the names that had been put forward was 
that of the Prince de Joinville ; and it was known that 
a large number of votes would be recorded in his favor. 
To prevent this unpleasant contingency, the Executive 
Commission took care to have a law passed on the 
26 th of May, banishing the whole Orleans branch of 
the House of Bourbon, and rendering its members inca- 
pable of serving France in any capacity. 

Louis Napoleon occasioned the Government much 
more serious uneasiness. The law of banishment against 
the Bonaparte family had been repealed ; three of its 
members already held seats in the National Assembly ; 
and the emperor's heir, elected by four different depart- 
ments, including that of the capital, could only be ex- 
cluded by a special act of ostracism. On the 12th, 
Lamartine gave notice of a motion to that effect, and 



REFORM OF THE ATELIERS NATIONAUX. 77 

the whole Assembly rose and testified their approval in 
a shout of " Vive la Republique ! '" This was done 
uuder a false impression that shots had been fired at 
the National Guard by persons who cried " Vive 
VEmpereur ! " It was true that riots were committed, 
seditious cries uttered, and incendiary proclamations 
put forth by the prince's partisans ; but the only blood 
drawn was that of an awkward civic soldier, who 
wounded himself by the accidental discharge of his 
own pistol. The real facts being* known, the Assembly 
voted on the 13th, by a vast majority, for the admission 
of the citizen Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. On the 15th 
they showed every disposition to rescind that vote, in 
their indignation at a letter from the Prince, received 
that day by the President. The passage which gave 
so much offence was the following: — If the people 
impose duties on me, I shall know how to fulfil them; 
but I disavow all those who have made use of my name 
to excite disturbance." But all was made good again 
by another letter, dated London, June loth, in which 
Bonaparte tendered his resignation rather than be the 
involuntary cause of disorder. 

From the moment there existed a regularly consti- 
tuted sovereign Assembly, the Executive was bent on 
eradicating those noxious institutions and usages which 
the weakness of a provisional authority had been com- 
pelled to tolerate. On the 12th of May, it was resolv- 
ed that the lists of the Ateliers nationaux should be 
closed, and no more workmen admitted ; that the men 
belonging to such private workshops as had been re- 
opened should return to them ; and that the unmarried 
men, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, 
should have their choice, either to be drafted into the 
army or dismissed. Arrangements were made for send- 
ing bodies of men to work in the provinces. An at- 
tempt to introduce the system of task-work was also 



*/8 FRANCE. 

made, but, unfortunately, in fixing the rate of pay, the 
performance of the weakest hands, such as painters 
and printers, was taken as a standard, so that it was 
easy for the more robust to earn fifteen or sixteen francs 
a day. 

The endeavors to reduce the number of hands on 
the Ateliers nationaux were strenuously counteracted 
by Emile Thomas, the manager of the institution, who 
hoped to be elected to the Assembly by the votes of 
his. 100,000 men. The Government removed him by 
stratagem, hurrying him off under pretence of a special 
mission to Bordeaux, and there keeping him in arrest 
until his successor had been installed in office. The 
men of the ateliers mutinied, and began to hold riotous 
assemblages in the streets ; but the Executive Com- 
mission put in force a law it had procured against 
such gatherings, and 800 rioters were arrested in one 
night. 

The Executive Commission, and especially Lamartine, 
have been most unjustly accused of not foreseeing and 
providing against the outbreak of June. Lamartine 
distinctly foretold what was coming, and was inde- 
fatigable in his efforts to prevent the impending cala- 
mity. The means he proposed were twofold : — to con- 
centrate a large military force in and round Paris, and 
to disperse the workmen through the provinces in small 
bodies, provided with steady employment of a useful 
kind. His anxiety to accomplish this last object ap- 
pears to have blinded him to the iniquity of the scheme 
for the appropriation of all the railways by the State. 
He was most earnest in recommending that measure as 
the only hopeful means of avoiding a bloody conflict, 
not considering that it wanted two conditions, with- 
out which it could only be an act of arbitrary 
spoliation. The price at which the railways were to be 
taken out of the hands of their proprietors was to be 
fixed, not by an impartial jury, but by the Govern- 



PRECAUTION AGAINST INSURRECTION. *79 

ment itself, and the shareholders were not to be paid in 
cash, but to be forced to sell on credit to an almost 
bankrupt State. 

On the 20th of May, the Government decreed that 
the garrison of Paris should consist of 20,000 men of 
the line, 15,000 of the Garde Mobile, 2600 Republican 
Guards, and 2850 Gardiens de Paris, besides 15,000 
of the line in the various posts within a few hours' 
march of the capital ; in all, 54,650 bayonets. It was 
further ordered, that in case of serious danger the 
Minister of War, General Cavaignac, should take the 
command of the forces of every kind in Paris. Again, 
on the 8th of June, Lamartine used these remarkable 
words in council, — " We are approaching a crisis. It 
will not be a riot, or a battle, but a campaign of several 
days, and of several factions combined. The National 
Assembly may, perhaps, be forced for a while to quit 
Paris. We must provide for these contingencies with 
the energy of a republican power. The 55,000 men 
sufficient for Paris would not suffice to bring back the 
national representation into the capital. I demand, 
besides a series of decrees of public security, that the 
Minister of War immediately order up to Paris 20,000 
men more." This proposal was unanimously adopted : 
and thus, a fortnight before the insurrection broke out, 
the Government had made arrangements to bring 
75,000 bayonets to the support of the National Guard 
of 190,000 men. General Cavaignac carried the orders 
of the Government into effect as fast as quarters could 
be provided. Lamartine every day inquired as to the 
arrival of the troops, and was told, " The orders have 
been given, and the troops are in movement." Taking 
into account the effective strength of the Garde Mobile, 
the Garde Republicaine, and the Gardiens de Paris, 
the effective number of the garrison in and around 
the capital at the end of June was 45,000 men. 

Meanwhile the thunder-clouds were visibly gathering, 



80 FRANCE. 

but it was not expected that the storm would burst be- 
fore the 14th of July. On that day, the anniversary 
of the taking of the Bastile, the Red Republicans had 
arranged to hold a banquet, tickets for which were to 
be issued at the price of five sous each. By this 
means it was calculated that at least 150,000 men 
would be brought together, and that, whether they 
dined or not, they would not separate without fighting. 
Disconcerted, however, by the active measures taken 
by the Government to break up the Ateliers nation- 
aux, certain of the conspirators resolved, suddenly and 
prematurely, on the 2 2d of June, to begin the action 
on the following day. 

On Thursday, the eve of the insurrection, at ten 
o'clock in the morning, M. Marie instructed M. Recurt, 
Minister of the Interior, to arrest fifty-six delegates of 
the Ateliers nationaux, who were then in the Jardin 
des Plantes. These men, and the chiefs of the Society 
of the Rights of Man, were the actual leaders of the 
insurrection. The delegates were allowed to walk 
about openly all day, and the writs against them were 
not put into the hands of the Prefect of Police until 
noon on the 23d, when they were already behind the 
barricades. That functionary has formally deposed, that 
had he been authorized to arrest the delegates and the 
chiefs of the club, " he would undoubtedly have pre- 
vented the insurrection." 

Two plans for putting down the expected outbreak 
were severally proposed. The Executive Committee 
was for spreading the troops over the capital, and pre- 
venting the erection of barricades. General Cavaig- 
nac's system was the reverse of this, and consisted in 
concentrating his forces at certain points, and bringing 
them into action in large masses. The insurrections 
of July, 1830, and February, 1848, had been treated 
by the existing governments as a sort of larger street 
riots, to be quelled in a police fashion. He treated 



INSURRECTION - OF JUNE. 81 

that of June as an outbreak of civil war, and met it in 
true order of battle. Those two examples proved to 
him, he said, " the necessity of not spreading the 
troops through the streets, but of advancing them in 
compact bodies, and in such numbers that the insur- 
rection should always be forced to give way before them. 
In such affairs the least check is fatal to an army. 
Above all things, to keep inviolate the honor of the 
flag was the sure pledge of final success. The event 
has confirmed the correctness of these views." General 
Cavaignac consulted his comrades, Lamoriciere, Bedeau, 
and Foucher, on this plan, and finding that they fully 
approve;! of it, he determined to act strictly upon it, but 
without disclosing it to the Executive Committee. " He 
was not sure that they, in their ignorance of military 
matters, would have approved of it ; or, if they had, 
they might have taken it on themselves to carry it out, 
and perhaps failed." 

It was a necessary consequence of this system of tac- 
tics that the insurgents had ample time to choose their 
ground and fortify it. Their manner of doing this display- 
ed, in a remarkable degree, that proficiency in the art 
of defence to which the Parisian populace had attained 
by long practice in street fighting. For the basis of 
their operations they had four main positions, two on 
the northern or right bank of the river, namely, the 
Clos St. Lazare, a little north of the Porte St. Denis, 
and the Place de la Bastile ; and on the left bank they 
had the church of St. Severin and the Pantheon. An 
imaginary line, running in a direction nearly north and 
south through the Clos St. Lazare and the Pantheon, 
and bisecting the old island city of Paris, represents 
very nearly the demarcation between the insurgent and 
the governmental moieties of the capital. All east of that 
line, with the exception of the Hotel de Ville and its 
precincts, was a net-work of barricades, and every inch 

F 

4* 



82 FRANCE. 

of the ground was disputed with desperate courage and 
pertinacity. 

It was twelve o'clock on Friday, the 23 d, before 'the 
first shot was fired. The battle was begun by the Na- 
tional Guard at the Portes St. Denis and St. Martin, 
from which the barricaders were repulsed, after consi- 
derable loss on both sides. The fighting continued all 
day on both sides of the river, with great slaughter but 
little practical result, the insurgents being only driven 
from their more advanced positions to rally again 
in other places. About five o'clock General Cavaignac, 
accompanied by Lamartine, Pierre Bonaparte, and other 
representatives, led an attack in person against the Fau- 
bourg du Temple. For three hours the barricades 
withstood the fire of four pieces of cannon ; and two 
generals and 400 soldiers were killed or wounded in 
the conflict. The troops behaved with admirable steadi- 
ness throughout the day, and the young soldiers of the 
Garde Mobile especially distinguished themselves. But 
the want of a sufficient number of troops occasioned 
loud and general complaints ; and accusations of imbe- 
cility, supineness, and treachery, were freely cast on the 
Executive Commission and the Commander-in-chief. 
The proneness of the French to indulge in calumnious 
suspicions, and to find in enormous perfidy a key to 
whatever remains unexplained in the conduct of their 
public men, is one of the ugliest defects in the national 
character. 

At four o'clock on Saturday morning the battle be- 
gan again, and raged with intense vehemence on both 
sides of the river. Both parties had been reinforced 
during the night. National Guards had arrived from 
the departments, a regiment of the line from Orleans, 
other troops from the adjacent garrisons, and cannon 
from Vincennes. The insurgents had also gained great- 
ly in numbers, in the strength of their positions, and 



INSURRECTION OF JUNE.- 83 

in the quantity of arms and ammunition. Barricades, 
ten or twelve feet high, and of great strength, crossed 
the streets at every dozen paces ; the houses too were, 
for the most part, in the possession of the insurgents, 
and covered with mattresses, bags of sand, and other 
protections against musketry, from behind which 
showers of missiles were poured down on the assail- 
ants. Besides this, they had eleven pieces of can- 
non ; but they do not appear to have made much 
use of them. 

At eleven o'clock the National Assembly passed a 
resolution declaring Paris in a state of siege, and ap- 
pointing General Cavaignac Dictator, with unlimited 
powers, civil and military. The Executive Committee 
instantly resigned. Orders were then issued that the 
National Guard should occupy the streets, prevent the 
assemblage of crowds, and watch over the safety of pri- 
vate property. The rest of the inhabitants were to re- 
main at home, and keep their windows closed as a secu- 
rity to the soldiers in the streets that they should not 
be fired on from the houses. Every person out of uni- 
form who was found abroad without a written pass was 
searched, and either taken prisoner or led by a National 
Guard to his own door. In pursuance of this judicious 
plan many persons were arrested in the act of convey- 
ing ammunition and other aid to the insurgents. At 
noon General Cavaignac sent a flag of truce to the in- 
surgents, offering a general amnesty if they would 
yield before two o'clock. The offer was^ rejected with- 
out hesitation, or a moment's interruption of the fir- 
ing. 

During the earlier part of the day the fight raged 
chiefly in the city and on the southern bank of the 
river. To get possession of the Hotel de Ville and the 
Prefecture of Police was a cardinal point with the in- 
surgents. Occupying the church of St. Gervais and its 
precincts, close to the Municipal palace, and half the 



84 FRANCE. 

bridges and buildings in the Isle du Palais, the least 
success in that quarter would have enabled them to 
close in on all sides, and completely invest the city. In 
Parisian warfare, the loss of the Hotel de Ville is what 
the loss of its colors is to a regiment in the field ; it 
was therefore a matter of primary importance to the 
Government to pierce the enemy's lines at that central 
point, towards which all his efforts converged. The 
church of St. Gervais was taken after a heavy cannonade ; 
next the bridges were carried with great slaughter, and 
thus the means of communication between the insur- 
gents of the two banks was completely cut off. Pursu- 
ing their success, the troops possessed themselves of 
the church of St. Severin, the head-quarters of the 
insurgents on that side. Their stronghold, the Pantheon, 
was carried at one o'clock at the point of the bayonet, 
after the great iron doors and railings had been broken 
by cannon. By four o'clock the Government was 
master of the whole left bank of the river. 

On the northern side the troops were hotly engaged 
all day in assailing the strong outworks of the insurgents 
in the Faubourgs Poissonniere and St. Denis, which 
were not carried till a late hour, and with great cost 
of life. Their defenders retreated to their central posi- 
tions in the Clos St. Lazare, the Marais, and the Fau- 
bourg St. Antome, which were so strong as to with- 
stand every effort made against them by General 
Lamoriciere, who commanded in the northern districts. 

The Clos St. Lazare is a wide, elevated plateau, 
covered with building materials and half-built houses. 
In the middle stood a new hospital, not yet finished, 
which the insurgents made their citadel, whilst the 
Church of St. Vincent de Pa ule and the Customs Ware- 
houses served them as outposts. Behind them they had 
the outer boulevards, strongly barricaded, and the city- 
wall, which they had loop-hooled, and from behind 
which a number of men fired, in complete security, on 



INSURRECTION OF JUNE. 85 

tlie troops. The church was taken early on Sunday 
morning. At one o'clock General Lamoriciere stormed 
the Customs Depot, after breaching it with cannon. 
Howitzers then swept the Clos St. Lazare, and the troops 
marching through divided the insurgents into two parts, 
which they drove before them in different directions. 
By four o'clock the troops of the Republic were masters 
of this quarter, and General Lamoriciere was now able 
to effect a junction in the Place de la Bastile with the 
troops that had meanwhile been sweeping the ground 
up 10 that point from the Hotel de Ville. This latter 
was a service of extreme difficulty, and could hardly 
have been effected at all without the aid of the sappers 
and pompiers to turn the barricades by cutting passages 
through the houses, and sometimes by blowing them 
up. Cannon was almost useless in the narrow and tor- 
tuous streets of this quarter. The insurgents had pos- 
session of nearly all the houses, and had opened interior 
communications between them, so that they could pass 
to and fro as in covered ways. The whole neighbor- 
hood was in fact one immense fortress, which it 
was necessary to demolish stone by stone. The 
besiegers paid a heavy price of blood for their 
victory. 

A desperate struggle, continued to a late hour at 
night in the Faubourg du Temple, concluded the opera- 
tions of this most bloody day. On Monday morning the 
insurgents made their last stand in the Faubourg St. 
Antoine, beyond the Canal St. Martin. An armistice 
took place, and they sent a deputation to propose a 
surrender, on condition that they should be allowed to 
retain their arms. General Cavaignac would accept 
nothing less than an unconditional surrender, and he 
allowed the insurgents until ten o'clock to deliberate. 
At that hour it was thought that the terms prescribed 
were agreed to, and some of the troops having got 
within the lines of the insurgents were fired on, and a 



86 FRANCE. 

great number of them killed. Hostilities were imme- 
diately renewed, and by one o'clock they terminated in 
the total discomfiture of the insurgents. 

In the above rapid sketch we have confined ourselves 
as much as possible to mere outline, and avoided the 
introduction of details which might distract the reader's 
attention and hinder him from obtaining a clear, con- 
nected view of the plan and course of the contest. 
Some of these details may now be added, but the pic- 
ture will still remain but a faint and imperfect copy of 
the terrible original. Let the reader imagine, if he can 
— what no description can portray — the horrors of a 
capital given up for four days to universal battle, waged 
on both sides with furious bravery and merciless hatred 
and vengeance. So vast a massacre, so immense a 
desolation, wrought in the heart of a city by the hands 
of her own citizens, never before occurred even in the 
annals of civil warfare or of Parisian revolutions. 

The number of killed and wounded on both sides, as 
ascertained by actual reckoning, exceeded 8,000 ; but, 
besides these, many perished of whom no accurate 
account could be taken. Multitudes of dead bodies 
were cast into the Seine before they were yet cold. 
The remains of others were found by the reapers in the 
fields around Paris. Nearly 14,000 prisoners were 
made by the Government, and of these more than a 
thousand died of gaol-fever. 

Of eleven generals who commanded, two were killed, 
viz. Generals Negrier and Brea ; and six were wounded, 
five of them mortally. These were, Duvier, Damesme, 
Korte, Lafontaine, Fouche, and Bedeau, the last and 
only surviving one of whom suffered amputation o f the 
thigh. Generals Lamoriciere, Lebreton, and Perrot, 
escaped unhurt. The former had two horses killed 
under him. Old soldiers declare, that never in the bat- 
tles of the Empire was the proportion of generals killed 



INSURRECTION OF JUNE. 87 

and wounded so considerable, and that never were so 
many men killed at the attack of forts and redoubts 
as at the barricades of Paris in the terrible affair of 
June. 

Nor were the victims in this hideous carnage such 
only as belonged to the guilty party, or to that of 
their armed opponents, and to a class whose profession 
it is to brave the chance of a violent death ; but men 
of peace were struck down in the performance of their 
generous mission to bring the misguided insurgents to 
reason, and to offer them promises of mercy. One 
member of the National Assembly, M. Bixio, was 
severely wounded while thus charitably employed ; 
and two others, MM. Domes and Charbonnel, received 
wounds of which they died. But the death that pro- 
duced the saddest and most profound impression, ap- 
palling even the host of his slayers, and filling their 
hearts with shame and contrition, was that of Denis 
August Affre, the good Archbishop of Paris. Desirous 
of putting an end to the horrors of the insurrection, he 
went, on the second day, among the insurgents, accom- 
panied by two of his vicars. The firing from the bar- 
ricades ceased at the sight of a green branch which 
was carried before him. Some misunderstanding, 
however, caused a musket to be discharged, which led 
to a resumption of the firing on both sides, just at the 
moment when the Archbishop and his attendants were 
about to ascend a barricade. Uninjured, however, by 
the fire, he descended into the midst of the insurgents ; 
but while he was addressing them he was struck in the 
groin by a ball fired from a window. The Arch- 
bishop's servant Pierre, who accompanied his master, 
was mortally wounded at the same barricade ; the two 
vicars who were with him escaped unhurt, but the 
Archbishop expired on the 27th. The good shepherd 
had given his life for his sheep. 

Treachery and cruelty characterized the warfare 



88 FRANCE. 

carried on by the insurgents. Seldom did the}?- give 
quarter, and in many instances they butchered their 
prisoners with the atrocity of savages. The boy 
soldiers of the Garde Mobile were the special objects 
of their barbarous rage ; the mutilated body of one of 
those lads was seen on the principal barricade of 
the Faubourg St. Antoine, impaled on a stake ; the 
bodies of five others were found in the Pantheon, hung 
up by the wrists, and hacked with sabres and bayonets. 
A woman, who was taken prisoner, confessed, with the 
most savage joy, that she had decapitated five officers 
of the Garde Mobile with a table knife. It is not true, 
however, as was at first given out, that the insurgents 
carried their cruelty to such a pitch of refinement as to 
use poisoned, or hacked, or jagged balls. The eri- 
dence of the surgeons who had care of the wounded 
completely refutes that story ; the only apparent 
grounds for which were, that the insurgents sometimes 
used balls that were defective in shape from the haste 
with which they were made, and that sometimes they 
used zinc and copper when lead failed them. To sup- 
ply themselves with the latter metal they went down 
into the vaults under the Column of July, and carried 
away the leaden coffins, after throwing out the re- 
mains of the victims of 1830, and of February, 1848. 
The insurgents made several attempts to set houses 
on fire by pumping spirits of turpentine upon them. 
In several places vitriol was thrown from the windows 
on the troops. 

General Brea having summoned the barricaders at 
the Barriere de Fontainebleau to surrender, four men 
stepped out from behind it, and made friendly pro- 
posals to the General that he should enter their lines 
and parley. He imprudently complied,, and went be- 
hind the barricade, accompanied by his aide-de-camp 
and two other officers. Instantly 2000 men started 
up, and threatened to kill the four hostages if the 



INSURRECTION OF JUNE. 89 

troops before them did not lay down their arms. 
Two hours were spent in parleying, during which 
time Brea wrote five notes to Colonel Thomas, who 
commanded the Gardes Mobiles before the barricade. 
The colonel sent to General Cavaignac for instructions. 
His reply was, that the safety of the country must be 
thought of before that of individuals, and, therefore, 
the barricade must be attacked. The Order was 
executed, the barricade w r as carried, and in the guard- 
house near it were found the dead bodies of General 
Brea and his aide-de-camp. They had been both 
shot in cold blood, and their dead bodies mu- 
tilated. The two other officers secreted themselves 
and escaped. 

After carrying a barricade in the Faubourg St. 
Antoine, the 48th Regiment made a number of 
prisoners, one of whom they were about to put 
to death, when Colonel Regnault came forward and 
saved the man. "Thank you, colonel," said the in- 
surgent, advancing towards him ; and, drawing a 
pistol from beneath his blouse, he shot his preserver 
dead. 

The insurgents had abundance of arms, furnished 
them from the arsenals of the State. They had 
foundries for casting balls, and chemists were im- 
pressed to make gunpowder for them. Every species 
of artifice was employed to convey ammunition. Milk- 
pails, the baskets carried by well-dressed women, 
the litters of the wounded, and even hearses, were 
found filled with gunpowder and cartridges. Large 
sums of money, embezzled from the ateliers, were 
discovered on the persons of men apparently in ex- 
treme poverty. The women of Paris took a most 
active part in* the struggle. They conveyed signals 
and orders through the hottest fire. They carried off 
the wounded. Some of them perished on the bar- 
ricades, or fired from the houses on the soldiers, whilst 



90 FRANCE. 

some are even reported to have inflicted the most re- 
fined barbarities upon their wretched fellow-citizens 
who had fallen prisoners into their hands. 

Infuriated by the cruel deeds of the insurgents, the 
National Guard and the Garde Mobile could hardly be 
restrained from killing all who fell into their hands. 
In repeated instances they shot their prisoners by 
scores and fifties, and tins carnage was continued even 
after the defeat of the insurrection. On the nights of 
the 26 th and 27tli of June, the streets were still lined 
with vast bodies of armed guardians ; every win- 
dow was illuminated, not in token of joy over the 
dismal victory, but as a measure of safety ; and every 
five minutes the ear was struck by the sharp, warning 
cry, — Sentinelle, garde a vous ! * which was repeated 
from man to man throughout the whole line of 
sentries, until it died away in the far distance. Some- 
times the more awful sound of musketry in volley told 
the fate of some unhappy body of prisoners. 

Assassinations were frequent for many days after the 
open fighting had ceased. Many soldiers were shot on 
their posts ; others were killed with poisoned wine and 
brandy. Strange accidents occurred to increase the 
havoc of those bloody days. About midnight, on the 
26th of June, a body of National Guards from one of 
the provinces was escorting about sixty prisoners to the 
Tuileries. Just as they were entering the Carousel 
they passed a post of National Guards ; the arms were 
piled, and the men had fallen asleep exhausted by 
fatigue. The prisoners made a rush, seized some of 
the weapons, and ran off in various directions, firing at 
every sentry they met. The guards of both parties 
fired confusedly, and killed fifty of their own number. 
Thirty of the prisoners were also shot dead ; some 
others were mortally wounded ; the rest escaped. 

* Sentinel, be on your guard. 



INSURRECTION OF JUNE. 91 

The most minute inquiry has failed to produce the 
least evidence to connect the insurrection of June with 
the machinations of any pretender's party — Orleanist, 
Bonapartist, or Legitimist. It was planned and ex- 
ecuted by the workmen alone ; the Ateliers nationaux 
furnished the army, the organization, and the funds ; 
and the animus and the rallying cry were given by the 
Luxembourg. The atrocities we have related, and the 
inscription " Incendie et pillage"* seen on, at least, 
one banner, are to be attributed to the forgats\ and 
other known criminals, who mingled largely in the 
composition of the ateliers. The great mass of the 
combatants had no thought of direct and open plunder, 
but wrote " Death to Robbers !" on the walls and shop- 
fronts, as in the days of February ; though, had they 
gained the victory, their very first step towards realizing 
their visionary social republic must have been a univer- 
sal system of spoliation, to be enforced and expedited by 
means of the guillotine. The guilt of these men lies 
at the door of those who filled them with a fanatical 
faith in schemes conceived in defiance of the laws of 
human nature and the vital principles of society. For 
the bulk of the men behind the barricades, the demo- 
cratic and social republic meant the despotic govern- 
ment of the country by the working classes of Paris ; 
for so they interpreted in the vulgar tongue the 
transcendental doctrines professed in the Luxembourg. 

* Fire and pillage. t Galley slaves. 



92 FRANCE. 



CHAPTER IV. 
FRANCE. 

FROM THE APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL CAVAIGNAC AS PRESIDENT 
OF THE COUNCIL TO THE ELECTION OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT 
OF THE REPUBLIC. 

With the defeat of the' June insurrection began a 
new phase in the internal affairs of France. On laying- 
down his temporary dictatorship immediately after the 
pacification of the capital, General Cavaignac was, by 
the enthusiastic suffrages of the Assembly, appointed 
President of the Council, with power to nominate his 
own ministry. He chose it at first from among the 
men connected with the National newspaper, the 
organ of the more reasonable section of pure Republi- 
cans ; and he afterwards modified it by the admission 
of M. Dufaure and other members of the old dynastic 
Opposition ; the Jules Favres, the Flocons, and all the 
rest of the Reforme coterie, were removed from office, 
and the Socialists, the Montague, and the Red Republi- 
cans of every sect, were deprived of the usurped power 
they had exercised with such insolent tyranny. The 
temper of the nation and of the Assembly was become 
strongly Conservative. A disposition even to retro- 
grade beyond the limits of Conservatism was manifested 
in many quarters, and the Monarchists of all denomi- 
nations began to display their renovated hopes with a 
boldness that scarcely brooked disguise. Fortunately, 



SEQUEL OF THE INSURRECTION. 93 

however, the civil sword of France was in a hand that 
knew how and when to wield it with effect. General 
Cavaignac held the balance between all parties with firm 
impartiality ; and he warned the monarchical intriguers, 
in very emphatic language, that his eye was upon 
them, and that they should find him ready to crush 
them upon the first provocation as he had crushed the 
Red Republicans. 

All requisite measures were taken to secure the 
peace of the capital and the provinces, and to allay the 
anxieties that were from time to time excited by 
rumors of fresh plots. The garrison of Paris was 
augmented and maintained on a war footing. The 
National Guard underwent a thorough purification : 
every man belonging to it who had not responded to 
the call to arms during the insurrection was disarmed 
and dismissed the ranks. The 8th, 9th, and 12th 
legions, comprising the men of the Marais, the Fau- 
bourg St. Antoine, and the Faubourg St. Marceau, 
were disarmed and dissolved, and so also were twenty- 
seven companies of the other nine legions, and two of 
the suburban legions. The Ateliers nationauz were 
suppressed ; but, by a decree passed in the midst of 
the insurrection, three millions of francs were applied 
tp the relief of the destitute inhabitants of Paris. The 
state of siege was prolonged until the 20th of October, 
and during its continuance eleven journals were sus- 
pended, including La Presse, the editor of which, M. 
Emile de Girardin, had been arrested on the 24th of 
June by order of General Cavaignac, and kept in con- 
finement for eleven days. A law for the regulation of 
the press was also enacted, and the responsibility of 
journalists was secured by the exaction of a large 
amount of caution-money, and by other stringent 
provisions. Lastly, the legal limitations of the right of 
association were defined, and those clubs which were 
not suppressed were made liable to such reasonable re- 



i* 



94 FRANCE. 

strictions, as were requisite to the peace and safety of 
the community. 

The trials of the insurgent prisoners occupied all the 
rest of the year, and some cases still remained over, 
notwithstanding that the business was prosecuted be- 
fore ten military commissions, sitting simultaneously. 
Transportation was the penalty to which the guilty 
were made liable, by an ex post facto law passed on the 
27th of June, and the Marquesas were at first talked 
of as their place of banishment. This project, how- 
ever, was abandoned as impracticable ; and the worst 
offenders were sent to Senegal, the rest to Algeria. 
The total number of the accused was 10,838, of whom 
6,237 were set at liberty, 4,346 condemned to trans- 
portation, and 255 sent before courts-martial. A 
strange incident occurred during one of the trials. One 
of the judges, Major Constantine, having pressed hardly 
upon a prisoner in his examination, the latter exclaimed, 
"It well becomes you to question me thus, Why 
you know you were to have been made Minister of War 
had we succeeded ! You know that you commanded 
at one of the barricades dressed in a blouse." An in- 
quiry having been instituted, the result was, that Major 
Constantine was arrested, tried, and found guilty. He 
was sentenced to three months' imprisonment, to be 
cashiered, and to be incapacitated from serving the state 
either in a military or civil station. 

The task of searching out the causes and instigators 
of the events of May and June was intrusted to a Com- 
mittee of Inquiry, presided over by Odillon Barrot. 
Great was the anxiety with which its Report was re- 
garded beforehand : " it hung like a heavy cloud upon 
the whole country ; but it had been so much used and 
abused by anticipation, that when it exploded it van- 
ished in smoke." The tone of personal resentment that 
pervaded it deprived it of all authority. It was a very 
severe judgment passed upon the chief actors in the 



LEDRU ROLLIN S SELF-VINDICATION. 95 

Revolution of February, and upon that revolution, but 
passed in a manifest spirit of retaliation on the part of 
Odillon Bavrot and his friends against Ledru Rollin 
and Lamartine. It was so evidently an act of accusa- 
tion against the origin of the Republic, that the more 
wary men of the ex-dynastic party thought it rather 
imprudent and inopportune ; and Thiers himself disap- 
proved of it, but too late. 

The Report of the Committee of Inquiry gave rise 
on the 25th of August to a most animated debate, in 
which Ledru Rollin boldly defied his accusers ; and if 
he did not accomplish the impossible feat of rebutting 
all their charges, he at least succeeded in dealing them 
some heavy and well merited blows. He began by al- 
luding to an inquiry set on foot after the affair of Oc- 
tober, 1 789, which, according to his account, was the 
sole cause of the sanguinary excesses of 1*798 ; and by 
analogy he contended that the inquiry of 1848 could 
only lead to a division among the true Republicans, if 
not to worse results. He denied that he had occasion 
to defend himself against any imputations contained in 
the Report. In June, was he not at his post ? In 
May, had he not done his duty ? And for the matters 
in which he had been engaged from the Revolution of 
February to the meeting of the National Assembly, 
had he not been absolved from anything that might 
offend by the vote of the Assembly, that " the Provi- 
sional Government had merited well of the country ?" 
He avowed his circulars, and defended the commission- 
ers on the ground that nothing but a really Republican 
Assembly could consolidate the Republic. He then 
alluded to the proposed invasion of Belgium ; with re- 
spect to which he gave not only absurd but contradic- 
tory explanations. In the first place, he justified the 
expedition to Risquons-tout, on the ground, which he 
knew to be false, that not only was a large body of the 
ministers of Louis Philippe plotting at Brussels against 



96 FRANCE. 

the Republic, but that there were three English men- 
of-war in the Scheldt, ready on the first movement in 
Belgium to take possession of Antwerp ; and then, 
with singular inconsistency, he denied that he had given 
arms to the expedition : for, according to him, the arms 
of which the. Belgian Republicans got possession at 
Lille had been provided, not for them, but for the Na- 
tional Guards. 

Having got over this aggression on a neighboring 
state in this bungling way, he made a tremendous, and 
it must be said successful, onslaught on the Thiers and 
Odillon'Barrot parties, whom he characterized as "the 
involuntary authors of the Revolution of 1848." In a 
strain of powerful invective, he taunted them with their 
incapacity ; and accused them of acting under the Re- 
public the same unworthy part that they had done 
under the Monarchy. They had just ideas enough, 
he said, to clog the march of Government, but not 
sufficient to conduct the Government themselves. After 
eighteen years of opposition, they had contrived, con- 
trary to their own wishes, to undermine and upset the 
Monarchy ; and when they had done so, they were 
completely taken aback by their own success, and had 
not an idea what they were to substitute. He recom- 
mended to them not to recommence the factious sys- 
tem of opposition, which could not succeed, because, 
"as they had no ideas under the Government of July, 
neither could they at the present day bring any to bear 
which would remedy the evils with which the country 
was besieged." This was the most successful part of 
M. Ledru Rollin's speech. He afterwards entered on 
the subject of his own idea of a republic ; but as he 
defended Socialist ideas in all their pruriency, and ap- 
peared to cast a slight on the idea of property (the ex- 
istence of which he went very near to deny), his re- 
marks were very coldly received. Throughout his speech 
he dwelt strongly on the necessity of concord, as the 



LOUIS BLANC AND CAUSSIDIERE. 97 

first duty of all true friends of the Republic. When 
he closed, the few cheers he received came exclusively 
from the Montagnards. 

Louis Blanc then read a written speech of great 
length and elaborate preparation, wherein he made a 
general disclaimer of all that was imputed to him as 
culpable ; but he failed to impress the Assembly, less, 
perhaps, through the improbability than the feebleness 
of his address. Caussidiere followed in another written 
harangue," rough, homely, and incoherent. He dwelt 
on the order which he had preserved in Paris, a matter 
of such difficulty in times of revolution ; he boasted of 
his cosmopolite efforts to reconcile the indigenous 
hackney-coachmen with their alien fellows ; he dis- 
claimed Sobrier, and vituperated with no less justice 
than force, some of the vagabond witnesses who had 
deposed against him. 

In the midst of the discussion, the Procureur- 
General demanded leave to prosecute Louis Blanc for 
his share in the insurrection of May, and Caussidiere 
for his share in the insurrections of May and June. This 
was the second application of the kind that had been 
made in Louis Blanc's case. The first took place early 
in June, when the committee to which the question 
was referred declared by fifteen to three in favor of 
prosecution ; but when the subject came to be discussed 
in full Assembly, the decision of the committee was re- 
versed, after a very stormy debate, by 368 against 337. 
It was a singular circumstance, that with the exception 
of M. Bastide, all the ministers voted against the prose- 
cution, and therefore against their own attorney-general, 
who thereupon resigned office : so also did Jules 
Favre, the Red Republican, and author of the circulars ; 
and M. Cremieux, the Minister of Justice, whose con- 
duct in voting against the prosecution, which might be 
considered as having been instituted by himself, oc- 
casioned no little scandal. 



98 FRANCE. 

The second application for leave to prosecute was 
granted in Louis Blanc's case, by a majority of 504 to 
252 ; and a similar authority was given as to Caus- 
sidiere, by 477 votes against 268 : but the motion 
to proceed against him on account of the events of 
June was negatived by 458 to 370. With this vote 
the Assembly closed a debate of eighteen hours' 
duration ; a length of sitting unprecedented in the 
French legislature. 

Warrants were forthwith applied for against the in- 
criminated parties, who meanwhile were making the 
best of their way to the frontiers. Some formal delays 
took place — contrived ones, as is alleged — and the fu- 
gitives arrived safely in England, to the great relief, no 
doubt, of the French Executive. 

Prince Louis Napoleon, the hHe noire* of the As- 
sembly, was again let loose upon it by the electors of 
Corsica ; but again he relieved the fears of that body 
by a letter of the 8th of July, stating that his election 
had been without his consent or approval ; but adding, 
" AVhile I do not, however, renounce the honor of 
being one day a Representative of the People, I think 
I ought to wait until the time that my return to 
France cannot in any way serve as a pretext to the 
enemies of the Republic. I trust that my disinter- 
estedness may prove the sincerity of my patriotism, and 
prove the best reply to those who erroneously accuse 
me of ambition." 

If the pledges given by a candidate for national 
honors be not light as lovers' vows, then is the first 
President of the French Republic rigidly bound in 
honor and conscience to forego all pretensions to the 
imperial purple. 

He did wisely in not hastily assuming the rank of a 

* Bite noire is equivalent to the English word Bugbear. 



LOUIS NAPOLEON IN THE ASSEMBLY. 99 

representative. Delay answered the double purpose of 
keeping his name before the public, and of enabling 
him at least to enter the Assembly with imposing 
£clat. Elections took place in Paris and in some of 
the departments in the third week of September. In 
the capital three vacancies were to be rilled, and about 
fifty candidates were started. The Government made 
great exertions to promote the return of its own men ; 
but they were all distanced. Louis Napoleon was re- 
turned by an overwhelming majority ; and M. Fould 
alone made any show of competition with the three 
Communist candidates who stood next on the poll. In 
addition, Louis Napoleon was returned for the depart- 
ments of the Moselle, the Yonne, and the Orne. The 
numbers polled were : — for Bonaparte, 116,014 ; Fould, 
the Jew banker, 80,193; Raspail, the Socialist, a 
prisoner in Vincennes, 67,852 ; Thore and Cabet, 
Communists, 65,650 and 65,460 ; Roger and Adam, 
Government candidates, 64,05*7 and 55,904 ; Marshal 
Bugeaud, 49,411 ; Emile de Girardin only 28,108. 

In the provinces the elections were more satisfactory 
to the Conservative party. Count Mole, who had 
pledged bis entire and universal allegiance to the Re- 
public, was returned for the Gironde ; and M. Rivet, an 
ex-deputy, defeated M. Raspail at Lyons, but by a very 
narrow majority. 

The heterogeneous elections of June had presented a 
striking type of the mental and moral confusion in 
which Paris was plunged. The September phenomenon 
was still more extraordinary. The same city sends at 
once into the Assembly the representatives of both ex- 
tremes — a Banker and a Communist, a Conservative 
and a Destructive. Is it possible to conceive a more 
oddly assorted trio than these three names, — Bonaparte, 
Fould, Raspail ? that is, military despotism, money aris- 
tocracy, and agrarian democracy — all coming out at 
once from the same ballot ! 



100 FRANCE. 

A shrewd observer, commenting on these elections, 
says of the return of Bonaparte, that " if it is a danger 
for the present Government, for the Republic, for the 
existing order of things, it is not in any sense the real 
danger for society itself. The struggle is elsewhere ; it 
must be looked for in the two other names. There lies 
the question, To be or not to be ? on that ground are 
social order and its enemies fighting their deadly fight. 
The Emperor's nephew represents but a name, and a 
name which he is unable to bear ; it is something ma- 
terial : but Socialists represent ideas, doctrines, some- 
thing intangible. See how strong, how disciplined, how 
perfectly united they have remained, even after their 
last battle of June ! They have been dispersed, dis- 
mantled, transported ; and, like the earth-worm cut 
into pieces, they have re-united and become one again. 
Whilst Conservatives of all shades were disseminating 
and losing their strength upon a dozen names, they set 
aside all differences and waived all rivalries, and unani- 
mously adopted three names. They were summoned 
by their leaders in the name of desolated wives, slain 
brothers, proscribed children : and to a man they voted 
the same list. What an example, and what a lesson 
for the other party ! The Conservatives had the ma- 
jority in their hands : if you take the total of the votes 
given to at least twelve candidates, you will arrive at 
300,000 and more. At all events, though Bonaparte 
could not have been excluded, the Socialist candidate 
could. How does the matter stand now ? Both par- 
ties, I might say both armies, remain under arms ; So- 
ciety on one side, Socialists on the other. A compro- 
mise had been attempted; it has miserably tailed. 
Prudent politicians had tried equilibrium, and a sort of 
Republican juste-milieu ;* it was rejected on both sides, 
and, with a kind of centrifugal force, popular feeling 

* Golden mean. 



RASPAIL. 101 

rushed at once to both extremities. That means 
nothing else but war, deadly war, between interests and 
classes. Fearful and melancholy to say, nothing- has 
been changed by that terrible battle of June — nothing ! 
At the last elections, the Socialists were about 80,000 ; 
this time, they have numbered about 65,000 ; the 
15,000 missing are the dead or the transported: the 
mass has remained compact and undivided, ready for 
another time. On the opposite side you find a ma- 
jority, but no unity : it appears they still want some 
cruel lesson to learn discipline ; they require severe 
drilling. 

" As an additional insult to the Establishment, the 
Socialists have significantly returned to the House an 
individual who had invaded and violated that same 
House, and is now for that very fact a prisoner at 
Vincennes. That Raspail is one of the strange figures 
of the times. There is in him an odd mixture of the 
philosopher and the physician ; he is a medical as well 
as a social reformer. He has invented a panacea, and 
pretends to cure all maladies with camphor ; having 
taken no degrees, he was never allowed to practise; so 
that he was obliged to spread his remedies like 
his doctrines, secretly. Amongst low classes he has 
that sort of influence which physicians and jugglers 
exercise over savages." 

The quiet and unassuming manner in which Bona- 
parte made his appearance in the Assembly rather 
astounded the Parisians, who had speculated on his 
presenting himself in a much more theatrical, if not 
martial, fashion. It is certain, however, that the 
Government had information about some plot going 
on, and that it entertained serious doubts of the fidelity 
of the troops : some regiments of the line and some 
battalions of the Garde Mobile were ordered out of 
Park. There were men there more Bonapartist than 



102 FRANCE. 

the Bonaparte himself. As for M. Raspail, the Assem- 
bly resolved almost unanimously that his election was 
valid, but that his imprisonment and the state prosecu- 
tion against him should both be continued. Ledru 
Rollin openly voted for the immediate admission of 
Raspail, the very man who had invaded the Assembly, 
and endeavored to overthrow the Government of which 
he, Ledru Rollin, was at the time a prominent mem- 
ber. But so far was the House from acquiescing in 
this spirit of amnesty, that it did not even take measures 
to expedite the trials of Raspail and his fellow-prisoners, 
Barbes and Albert, so as to enable them to take their 
seats, if acquitted. The last month of the year elapsed 
before the judicial preliminaries as to the affair of 
May 15 were completed. 

Slowly and tediously, week after week and month 
after month, the Assembly debated the draught of the 
Constitution. A vehement contest was waged about 
the clause in the preamble relating to labor. The 
clause, as originally proposed, pledged the Republic to 
protect the citizen in his person, family, religion, pro- 
perty, and labor, and to give subsistence to the neces- 
sitous. The Socialists and other Red Republicans 
pressed an amendment recognising the right of u all 
citizens," whether necessitous - or not, to " instruction, 
work, and assistance." After three days' hammering 
of the question, all parties came to a sudden and unex- 
pected agreement upon the following amendment, pro- 
posed by M. Dufaure : — " The Republic owes fraternal 
assistance to necessitous citizens, either in the way of 
procuring work for them to the extent of its resources, 
or of giving, in default of family, the means of sub- 
sistence to those who are unfit to work." This propo- 
sition evidently involves nothing more than the princi- 
ple of such a poor-law as was given to England in the 



THE CONSTITUTION. 103 

reign of Elizabeth ; nevertheless, the Socialists were 
pleased to consider it as foreshadowing the realization 
of their own doctrines. 

The clause relating to taxation gave rise to a debate 
of some interest. A controversy is maintained among 
the French economists as to whether taxation should 
be proportional to a man's income or progressive with 
it ; a defective terminology, failing to convey the in- 
tended meaning ; the contest really is, whether taxa- 
tion should increase at the same rate with or at a more 
rapid rate than the income of the tax-payer. The Red 
Republicans advocate the " progressive " doctrine ; the 
majority support the " proportional " doctrine. The 
constitution committee timidly refused to adjudge the 
point, and evaded the question, by laying down in the 
draught of the Constitution that each citizen should 
contribute to the taxes en raison de ses faculty et de 
sa fortune* M. Servieres proposed to substitute the 
words found in all the previous Constitutions, en pro- 
portion de sa fortune. \ The debate lasted two days ; 
ultimately the amendment was carried by an immense 
majority, and the partisans of progressive taxation 
were consequently beaten. 

The 20th article of the Constitution declares, that 
" the French people delegates the legislative power to 
one Assembly." An amendment, declaring that there 
should be two Assemblies, was proposed by Duvergier 
de Hauranne, and supported by Odillon Barrot. The 
debate was one of the most brilliant in the parliamen- 
tary annals of France. Lamartine made a most effec- 
tive speech in favor of the original article. To the 
argument drawn from the example of England and of 
the United States of America he replied, that in Eng- 
land the House of Peers is a suitable representation of 

* Proportional to his faculties and his fortune, 
t In proportion to his fortune. 



104 FRANCE. 

tlie aristocratic element which exists there, but which is 
no longer tolerated in France ; in America, the Senate 
represents the federal principle, which is the basis of 
the union of the independent States. But his grand 
argument was drawn from the fatal necessity of having 
always in readiness the means of promptly evoking a 
dictatorship. Menaced on all sides by the deadliest 
perils, France would often have need of instantaneous 
recourse to that ultima ratio of agonized society. But 
who was to be invested with the arbitrary power of 
nominating the dictator ? Surely it should not be 
shared between two Assemblies, often at variance with 
each other ; the only reasonable hope that the right 
man would be forthcoming at the right moment de- 
pended on intrusting his- nomination to one sole 
authority. How deeply the Assembly felt the force of 
this melancholy argument was shown by the largeness 
of the majority — 530 to 289 — that affirmed the prin- 
ciple of a single Chamber. 

The Constitution was completed at last — no, not 
completed, for a supplement of " organic laws " was 
promised, — it was confirmed by the votes of 737 mem- 
bers to 36, and was proclaimed on the 10th of Novem- 
ber. It is the twenty-first, twenty-second, or twenty- 
third — we forget which — that has been set up in 
France within sixty years, and it is by no means likely 
to be the last of the series. Its best praise is, that it 
confers upon the people some practical powers which 
they are not likely to relinquish, and in the exercise of 
which they will become capable and desirous of still 
better things. But so full is it of flaws and imperfec- 
tions, so obscure, so encumbered with details and 
excrescences, that it will have to be thoroughly recast, 
whatever the nominal form of the Government which 
may hereafter be established in France. 

As regards the Executive, this Constitution goes 
very near to satisfy Ledru Rollin's postulate, that there 



POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT. 105 

should be in the Government no individual represen- 
tative of the national sovereignty ; but that the Assem- 
bly should monopolize all the functions of the State. 
Elected by universal suffrage to the chief office in the 
Executive, the President of the Republic should be the 
representative of the sovereign authority ; but he is so 
hemmed in by checks, that his power is all but neutra- 
lized. The provisions regulating his position and 
functions are a jumble of devices, sometimes just 
enough, but not falling into one intelligent whole, not 
guided by any master principle. The negative prevails 
throughout. He is elected for four years; and the 
first thought is to cut off any chance'of his establishing 
a family interest, by making him, and all his relations 
" to the sixth degree inclusive," ineligible for the next 
term. He disposes of the army, but must not com- 
mand it in person ; nor can he make war without 
leave of the Assembly. He negotiates and ratifies 
treaties, but they must be sanctioned by the Assembly. 
He presides at national solemnities, receives a salary 
of $120,000 a year, and is lodged at the cost of the 
Republic. He chooses his own ministers and dismisses 
them, but all other acts of his are invalid unless coun- 
tersigned by a minister. He is himself responsible, as 
well as every other officer in his department. He may 
convene the Assembly, but if he dissolve or prorogue 
it, or hinder its meeting, he is guilty of high treason. 
He can only perform many important functions with 
the advice of a Council of State, elected by the Assem- 
bly ; and, in short, if he strictly observe the letter of 
the Constitution, it is not easy to see how the Republic 
can have in him an efficient officer. The probability 
is, rather, that he will be fretted into a constant state 
of secret or open conflict with the Assembly, and that 
his efforts will be continually bent on acquiring for 
himself a less irksome position and a freer scope of 
action. 

5* 



106 FRANCE. 

The Constitution collects its restrictions and its immu- 
nities into two separate bundles, assigning the former 
to the President, the latter to the Assembly. The Depu- 
ties are exempt from arrest, except taken flagrante de- 
licto ; and from prosecution, except by leave of the 
Assembly. A citizen under arrest, elected to the 
Assembly, is ipso facto freed. The Assembly is per- 
manent ; the new one is returnable the day after the 
old one expires ; it cannot be prorogued by the Presi- 
dent ; if it adjourns, it leaves a committee to reconvoke 
it on emergency. It makes laws. We have already seen 
how it controls the Executive. As paid functionaries 
are to be ineligible to the Assembly, and its members 
cannot hold office, it can have little sympathy with the 
Executive. The President must promulgate all laws 
within a month ; within that term he can call for a 
new deliberation, but there the shadow of the veto 
terminates — a further affirmation of the law is defini- 
tive. Thus the supreme power resides in the seven 
hundred and fifty Deputies ; and its limits, moreover, 
are wholly undefined. The Assembly may become as 
absolute as the Venetian Ten, and the more readily 
since it is privileged to sit in secret. 

Far more than the merits or demerits of a constitu- 
tion universally regarded as ephemeral, the question 
of the Presidential Election occupied for months the 
minds of Frenchmen of every class. For some time 
the majority of the Assembly were strongly inclined to 
assume to themselves the nomination of the President, 
as the only means of defeating the pretensions of Louis 
Napoleon ; but they durst not aclopt such a course 
without some specious pretext to offer to the country. 
The least explosion of a Bonapartist conspiracy would 
have been sufficient ; but nothing of the kind occurred ; 
and it was finally resolved that the contest should be 
decided by universal suffrage on the 10th of December. 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 107 

Cavaignac was the candidate of tfye moderate and 
sincere Republicans, for it was not until the last mo- 
ment that Lamartine consented to be put in nomination ; 
but the Monarchists of every denomination, and " the 
involuntary authors of the Revolution of February," 
the mortified and resentful members of the late dynastic 
Opposition, all gave their support to Bonaparte. Had 
the contest been only between these parties, the success 
of Cavaignac would have been certain ; but beyond 
them lay the vast, intractable mass of the population, 
the men who had suffered most deeply by the faults 
and follies of all parties, and to whom that candidate 
would be most acceptable who came before them 
recommended by the hostility of those whose names 
were identified in the popular apprehension with 
increased taxes, stinted means of subsistence, oppression, 
anarchy, and civil war. The Revolution of February 
had disturbed everything . and settled nothing ; it had 
not even gratified the national passion for glory. No 
wonder that the people should have longed for a 
change, and that the name of the Emperor should 
have raised them with irresistible strength. It re- 
minded them of a time when France was united, 
mighty, and glorious, well ordered at home, and terri- 
ble abroad. The peasants thought not of the iron 
pressure of the Imperial despotism, against which their 
fathers had revolted ; for Time, " the beautifier of the 
Dead," had already cast a soft, legendary haze over the 
harsher features of the great man's reign. While 
crossing the Place Vendome one day, Prince Louis 
Napoleon is reported to have said, pointing to his 
uncle on the column, " There is the great elector !" 
And most true it was. The peasants knew little of the 
nephew besides the name he bore ; but that name was 
invoked with a blind, unwavering faith, as possessing a 
cabalistic power to charm back peace and plenty to the 
land. The unanimous impulse that possessed the 



108 FRANCE. 

country people sprang- from a superstition against 
which no reasonings could avail. When they came to 
the balloting-places, those of them who could not read 
numbered with their ringers the twenty-two letters of 
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, printed on their tickets. 
Some of them had been told, that the votes for Bona- 
parte would be, by some secret chemical process, con- 
verted into votes for Cavaignac when once in the ballot- 
box : they came in whole bodies, with their muskets, 
to watch over the boxes day and night : and, as a dis- 
tinctive sign, they had folded their tickets in a triangu- 
lar shape, meaning the petit chapeau of the Great 
Emperor. 

The result of the election was as follows : — ■ 

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte . . . .5,534,520 

General Cavaignac 1,448,302 

Ledru Rollin 371,431 

Raspail 36,964 

Lamartine 17,914 

General Changarnier 4,687 

Sundry votes 12,434 



Number of votes actually given . .7,426,252 
Votes disallowed 23,219 



Number of voters who went to the poll ) ,_ ,, q .,. -. 

in the 86 departments of France ) ' ' ' 

It appears by the official returns that Louis Napoleon 
had a majority of votes in eighty-four out of eighty-six 
departments. He had more than 100,000 votes in 
each of the departments of the Seine, the Charente 
Inferieure, the Somme, the Yonne, the Nord, the 
Gironde, the Seine et Marne, and the Pas de Calais. 
General Cavaignac had the majority in the Finisterre 
and the Morbihan. The departments which gave him 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 109 

the next most votes were the Seine, the Nord, the Pas 
de Calais, the He et Vilaine, the Cotes du Nord, the 
Loire Inferieure, and the Manche. He obtained more 
than 10,000 votes in the departments of the Seine, the 
Bouches du Rhone, the Lot et Garonne, the Haute 
Garonne, the Saone et Loire, the Nord, the Gard, and 
the C6te d'Or. M. Raspail had more than 1000 votes 
in the departments of the Seine, the Haute Loire, and 
the Var solely. M. de Lamartine obtained more than 
2000 votes in the departments of the Seine and the 
Saone et Loire: he did not receive even a*thousand 
votes in any of the others. Among the votes disallowed 
were 1200 given at Brest for the Prince de Joinville. 

The result of the votes in the three provinces of 
Algeria is thus stated by the Akhbar : — 

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 38,314 

General Cavaignac 20,854 

Ledru Rollin 5,403 

Lamartine 3,024 

Raspail 142 

67,737 

It is probable that more than three-fourths of the 
whole adult male population of France voted on this 
occasion ; and never in history was so enormous a mass 
of people put at once in motion with such perfect order. 
Seven millions and a half of men going to the poll at 
the same moment, without the least disturbance, was 
assuredly a grand sight and a great fact. The result, 
too, very strikingly illustrated one advantage of uni- 
versal suffrage, for it showed beyond cavil that the newly- 
elected President was the choice of the people. He 
had a majority of nearly four to one over his nearest 
rival, and of more than two to one over all his rivals 
together. 

There is another way in which we may analyse the 



110 FRANCE. 

above lists of votes. Irrespectively of mere political 
differences, the whole may be divided into two parts : 
for we mast consider the voters for Bonaparte, Ca- 
vaignac, Lamartine, and Changarnier, as belonging to 
so many different sections of one party ; that, namely, 
which is opposed to the Socialists and the Republicans. 
Drawing, then, that broad line between the friends and 
foes of order, we see on the one side, 7,000,000 of men, 
on the other only 400,000. 

The ceremony of proclaiming the President of the 
Republic'was suddenly and unexpectedly accomplished 
on the evening of the 20th of December. It appears 
that Government had received tidings of a Bonapartist 
plot to seize the President on his way from the Assem- 
bly, and to convey him to the Tuileries with shouts of 
" Vive VEmpereur ! " In order to defeat all such pro- 
jects, the report was industriously spread that the 
installation would not take place until after the lapse of 
some days ; and Paris, on the evening of the 20th, 
knew only by the cannon of the Invalides that the cere- 
mony had been actually completed. 

The members of the National Assembly having taken 
their places, and the report of the Electoral Committee 
having been read, General Cavaignac rose, and in a brief 
address, delivered with remarkable dignity, resigned, in 
his own name and that of his colleagues, the civil 
authority with which the Assembly had invested them. 
M. Marrast, the President, put the question of adopting 
the Report, whereupon the whole Assembly, with the 
exception of a few on the extreme left, rose and affirmed 
it by acclamation. M. Marrast then formally proclaimed 
Citizen Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte President 
of the French Republic from that day until the second 
Sunday of May, 1852, and called upon him to take the 
oath required by the constitution. M. Bonaparte then 
ascended the tribune ; and the President of the Assem- 
bly read the form of the oath, as follows : — 



THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL SPEECH. Ill 

" In the presence of God, and before the French 
people, represented by the National Assembly, I swear 
to remain faithful to the Democratic Republic, and to 
fulfil all the duties which are imposed upon me by the 
constitution." 

M. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, raising his hand, said 
with a loud voice, " I swear it." 

At this moment, a salvo of artillery from the Inva- 
lides proclaimed the administration of the oath. 
• President Marrast. — "We call God and men to 
witness the oath which has been taken. The National 
Assembly records it, and orders that it shall be tran- 
scribed in the proceedings, inserted in the Moniteur, 
published and promulgated in the form of legislative 
acts." 

The President of the Republic, remaining in the 
tribune, then delivered the following address : — 

" The suffrages of the people, and the oath which I 
have taken, prescribe my future conduct : my duty is 
traced out, and I shall fulfil it as a man of honor. I 
shall see enemies of the country in all those who shall 
attempt to change by illegal means that which the 
whole of France has established. Between you and 
me, citizen representatives, there cannot be any real 
difference ; our wishes, our desires are the same. I, 
like you, wish to replace society on its basis, to confirm 
its democratic institutions, and seek all proper means 
for alleviating the sufferings of that generous and 
intelligent people which has given me so shining a 
testimony of its confidence. 

" The majority which I have obtained not only fills 
me with gratitude, but also gives to the new Govern- 
ment the moral force without which there is no 
authority. With peace and order, our country can 
raise itself again, can heal its wounds, bring back those 
men who have been led astray, and calm their pas- 
sions. 



112 FRANCE. 

" Animated by this spirit of conciliation, I shall call 
around me men honorable, capable, and devoted to 
their country ; assured that, rnaugre the diversities of 
political origin, they will agree in emulating your 
endeavors for the fulfilment of the constitution, the 
perfecting of the laws, and the glory of the Republic. 

" The new Administration, in entering upon the 
conduct of affairs, must thank that which preceded it 
for the efforts which it made to transmit intact the 
power of maintaining the public tranquillity. The con- 
duct of the honorable General Cavaignac has been 
worthy of the loyalty of his character, and of that 
sense of duty which is the first quality in the chief of a 
state. 

" We have, citizen representatives, a great mission to 
fulfil — it is to found a Republic in the interest of all, 
and a Government just and firm, which shall be 
animated by a sincere love of progress, without being 
either reactionary or Utopian. Let us be men of our 
country, not men of a party ; and, by the help of God, 
we shall be able at least to do some good, if we are not 
able to do great things." 

The speech was received with general marks of ap- 
probation, the whole Assembly rising with cries of 
" Vive la Rt'publique /" M. Louis Bonaparte having 
come down from the tribune, went up to General 
Cavaignac and shook him cordially by the hand. The 
new President was then met by M. Odillon Barrot and 
his friends of the Right, who escorted him from the 
hall to the Palace of the Elysee National (ci-devant 
Bourbon), where he took possession of Ms official 
residence, held a sort of levee, and slept in the bed- 
chamber last occupied by his uncle, the Emperor, in 
Paris. 

The following is the ministry that evening gazetted : 
— Odillon Barrot, President of the Council and Minister 
of Justice ; Drouyn de Lhuys, Foreign Affairs ; Leon 



REVOLUTIONARY CYCLE. 113 

de Maleville, Interior ; Hippolyte Passy, Finance ; 
Leon Faucher, Public Works ; Bixio, Commerce ; 
General Rulhieres, War ; De Tracy, Marine. By a 
decree in the same Gazette, General Changarnier was 
appointed Commander-in-chief of the National Guard 
and Garde Mobile of the Seine, and of all the regular 
troops of the first military division. Another decree 
named Marshal Bugeaud Commander-in-chief of the 
Army of the Alps. Among other appointments which 
followed were those of the ex-King of Westphalia, 
"the General of Division, Jerome Bonaparte," to be 
Governor of the Invalides ; and of the President's 
cousin, M. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, to be Ambas- 
sador to England. 

The bourgeoisie now sang Jubilee : Redeunt Satur- 
nia regno.* The revolutionary cycle was closed, and 
things had come round to the point from which they 
started ten months before. On the 24th of February, 
M. Odillon Barrot was sent for by the King ; on the 
24th of December, the same M. Barrot was sent for by 
the President of the Republic. Brush out the memory 
of all that happened in the interval, and begin again. 

But, behold, there is a check and a stumble on the 

threshold ! 

In his first speech, as Minister of Finance, M. Passy 
demanded the maintenance of the existing duties on 
salt till the first of January, 1850, that is to say, for 
six months longer than had been recommended by the 
Committee ; and, in support of his demand, he made 
some general financial statements to the Assembly.f 

He did not for a moment contest the oppressiveness 
of the duty ; but the state of the finances would not 

* The Golden Age returns. 

t The expenditure for the year 1848 exceeds 72,000,OOOL 
Under Louis Philippe it averaged 60,000,000/. ; under Charles 
X., in the last three years of his reign, 36,000,000/. 
H 



114 FRANCE. 

permit them to give up the 23,000,000 which the 
duty furnishes. His predecessor had, informed them 
that the whole deficiency in the Treasury at the end of 
1849 would be 460,000,000. Now, 38,000,000 must 
be restored to the savings' banks on the 1st of January, 
1850. The deficiency of the year 1849, after the final 
settlement of the budget, was put at 91,000,000 ; but 
facts already known would swell that sum to 166,000,- 
000 ; and M. Passy recapitulated evidences to show 
that his predecessor had, in like manner, underrated 
unforeseen expenses and overrated augmentations of 
revenues. On the whole, he estimates the deficiency 
at 100,000,000 francs beyond his predecessor's total of 
460,000,000 francs. M. Passy would absolutely set 
his face against any other new imposts at present : it 
was no time for experiments in new taxes ; but that 
determination on the part of the Government rendered 
it the more resolved to maintain those in existence. 
The ministerial proposal was met by an amendment to 
the effect that the duty should be reduced to ten francs 
per 100 kilogrammes, from and after the 1st January, 
1849, and that it should be completely suppressed on 
the 1st of January, 1850. The Assembly divided on 
the first part of this amendment, when it was adopted 
by a majority of 403 votes to 360. This result created 
a great degree of agitation. The second part of the 
amendment was abandoned by M. Anglade ; but it was 
again brought forward by M. Vezin, and, on a division, 
rejected by a large majority. Ultimately the ensemble 
of the bill was carried by 372 votes to 363. 

The result of this debate plainly indicated that little 
harmony was to be expected between the Assembly 
and the new Government. The latter would, there- 
fore, strive eagerly to bring about a dissolution, to 
which the Assembly had already declared it would not 
consent until it should have passed the " organic laws." 

Before the week was out there was a dispute between 



A HITCH IN THE GOVERNMENT. 115 

tlie President and his Cabinet. The latter tendered 
their resignation in a body, but the majority withdrew 
it in compliance with the President's apologetic en- 
treaties. Two of them, however, M. Leon de Maleville 
and M. Bixio, refused to hold office any longer. The 
quarrel began with an angry letter from the President 
to the Minister of the Interior, complaining that 
despatches were kept back from him, and desiring that 
public documents relating to his own escapades at 
Strasbourg and Boulogne should be sent to him. 
Some light was thrown on this affair by a curious scene 
in the Assembly, in which we see M. Sarrut insinuating 
that the late Minister of the Interior had kept back 
documents relating to the Boulogne affair, lest it should 
be discovered that he (M. de Maleville, then Under- 
secretary in the department of the Interior) was Louis 
Napoleon's enemy ; M. de Maleville accusing M. Sarrut 
of having " basely lied ;" M. Dupont de Bussac com- 
plaining that the Minister had treated the President as 
a person bent on illegally abstracting public docu- 
ments ; M. de Maleville again confessing that he had 
wished to reappoint the same man who was his secret 
agent of police in 1840, at the time of the Boulogne af- 
fair ; and that he had resigned because Louis Napoleon's 
objection to that appointment implied " want of con- 
fidence," and hurt M. de Maleville's personal dignity. 

All this augured ill for the quiet of the new Pre- 
sidency. 



116 ITALY. 



CHAPTER V. 

ITALY. 

THE CONSTITUTIONS AUSTRIAN ASSASSINATIONS IN LOMBARDY. 

In Italy, the year 1848 was from the outset marked 
with important events. First on the list is the massacre 
of Milan, to which we shall presently revert. On the 
12th of January, the fete-day of King Ferdinand of 
Naples, the people of Palermo and all the great towns 
of Sicily rose simultaneously and drove out the Neapo- 
litan troops. On the 28th, the Neapolitans received a 
"Constitution modelled on the French Charter of 1830, 
but in some respects more liberal. The Sicilians were 
offered their share of this Constitution, but they refused 
to accept it. They defeated all the royal troops sent 
against them ; elected their own parliament, which was 
opened at Palermo on the 25th of March by Ruggiero 
Settimo, President of the Provisional Government ; and 
on the 13th of the following month, the deposition of 
King Ferdinand and the independence of Sicily were 
formally decreed. 

In Tuscany, a series of liberal measures was crowned 
on the 1st of February by the issue of a Constitution 
better than any of the others granted by the four native 
princes of Italy to their subjects, and in one capital 
item superior to that framed for themselves by the 
Sicilians. The Tuscan Constitution, in its political 
machinery, resembles the Neapolitan, having a Senate 
for life and a Chamber of Deputies ; it secures freedom 
of commerce and toleration of all religions ; whereas 



CONSTITUTIONS. 11 7 

under the other four Italian constitutions the only reli- 
gion recognised and permitted is " the Christian Catholic 
Apostolical Roman." 

The Sardinian kingdom was the next to obtain its 
Constitution, which was published on the 5 th of 
March, and Count Cesare Balbo, a well known writer 
and statesman, was appointed to form a responsible 
cabinet. The Piedmontese Constitution is like the 
Neapolitan in the larger branches of its machinery ; but 
the King seems to have reserved to himself more pow- 
er. The cardinal point in the qualification of electors 
is the payment of taxes of an amount to be determined 
by an electoral law. The King at the same time 
reduced the price of salt, a state monopoly. 

The Roman Constitution granted by the Pope was 
proclaimed on the 15th of March, and on the same day 
the Jesuits were ordered to withdraw from tlie papal 
dominions. It cost much pains to render the Roman 
Constitution as liberal as possible, consistently with the 
Pope's peculiar spiritual authority ; but a perfect recon- 
ciliation between these two conflicting conditions is 
clearly impossible. The most notable provisions of this 
Constitution are as follows : The existing College of 
Cardinals is retained. There is also a Senate or high 
council, and a Council of Deputies. The Senators are 
appointed for life by the Pope, who will choose them 
from among the high ecclesiastical officials and lawyers, 
and those possessing an income of 4000 scudi (about 
$5000) per annum. The council of deputies is elective 
in the ratio of one deputy to every 30,000 souls. The 
qualified electors are the possessors of a capital of 300 
scudi, or payers of direct taxes to the amount of 12 
scudi per annum ; and also certain commercial, learned, 
and legal officers. The qualification of a deputy is a 
capital to the amount of 100 scudi, or the occupation 
of certain learned and ecclesiastical offices. The Roman 
Catholic religion is indispensable in all. The two 



118 ITALY. 

councils have the control of secular matters, but they 
are precluded from interfering in ecclesiastical affairs 
and in those of a mixed kind, which come under the 
church canons of discipline, or in the religious and 
diplomatic relations of the holy see. The taxes are 
under the control of the council of deputies. Ministers 
are responsible for affairs within the power of the two 
councils. The functions of temporal sovereignty during 
an interregnum are vested in the Sacred College. There 
is also a Council of State (privy council) to draw up 
projects of law and advise on administrative affairs 
in cases of emergency. 

In a preamble to the proclamation incorporating this 
Constitution, Pius IX. frankly declared the difficulties 
he had to surmount in reconciling the new secular 
power of " modern civilization " with the ancient eccle- 
siastical functions aud usages of his government, and 
indicated the reasons for certain limitations in the func- 
tions of the new cliambers, avowing the intention " to 
maintain entire and intact our authority in matters 
which are actually connected with religion and catholic 
morality." 

Towards the close of the year 1847 it occurred to the 
people of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, that how- 
ever unable they were to cope in arms with the Aus- 
trians, there was one channel through which they might 
wage successful war against them. Accordingly it was 
resolved by all classes of society to practise a total 
abstinence from tobacco, snuff, and the lottery, as the 
most effectual means of damaging the finances of the 
Imperial Government, which derives, as is well known, 
a very large revenue from those monopolies ; and the 
Milanese reminded each other that the Americans had 
begun their successful struggle for independence by a 
similar evasion of the duty on tea. 

On the 1st of January no one was to be seen smoking 



MASSACRE IN MILAN. 119 

in the streets, except some few Italians who were not 
yet aware of the resolutions adopted, or those members 
of the Austrian party and the Imperial forces, who had 
smoked before from taste, and now smoked the more 
from loyalty and devotion to their order. Hence it came 
to pass, as one of our journalists classically remarked, 
that whereas the Caesars of Rome required the early 
Christians to burn incense to the idols of a heathen 
Olympus, so the Caesar of Vienna might test the loyalty 
or the patriotism of his Italian subjects by requiring 
them to light a pipe or inhale rappee. The populace, 
of course, were not slow to manifest their displeasure 
against those who refused to take the national pledge ; 
crowds gathered round the smokers, insisting that they 
should lay aside their cigars, sometimes civilly, some- 
times with cries and hisses ; quarrels arose, and the 
soldiers began to act with their usual brutality. Count 
Casati, the Podesta (Mayor) of Milan, remonstrated 
with the police and the soldiery on their violence ; pre- 
tending not to recognise him, they arrested him, and 
marched him off to the Ministry of Police, where he 
was kept a prisoner until the Municipal Council attend- 
ed in a body and demanded his release. 

The 3d of January arrived, and the Austrian authori- 
ties resolved to carry into effect Radetsky's theory, that 
" three days of bloodshed yield thirty years of peace." 
In order to inflame the minds of the soldiery to the 
necessary degree of rage, recourse was had to a strata- 
gem like that before employed in Galicia, where the Go- 
vernment persuaded the peasants that it had for 
three years abolished forced labor, but that the land- 
owners continued to levy it illegally, and were contem- 
plating a massacre to diminish the number of the pea- 
sants. A report was now spread in the barracks of 
Milan, that a great conspiracy had been discovered in 
the city against the military ; and a handbill, full of 
insults and threats against the soldiery, and purporting 



120 ITALY. 

to be clandestinely published by the Milanese, was con- 
cocted, and printed in the offices of the police. A re- 
markable exception was made in this case from the 
usual energy and rigor shown in dealing with violations 
of the law of the press, for no efforts were made to dis- 
cover the authors of the offensive handbill. This was 
a blunder on the part of the police : to be consistent, 
they ought to have carried the farce so far. 

Six cigars and an ample supply of brandy were 
served out to each soldier on the morning of the 3d. 
As the day advanced, they appeared in the streets, a 
score or two together, half drunk with brandy, and with 
the rage excited in their breasts by the forged handbill. 
Each had a cigar in his mouth, and in obedience to 
their secret orders, they bantered and jeered the Ita- 
lians, and endeavored by all sorts of insolence to pro- 
voke them to a breach of the peace. So the day passed. 
When evening came, the brandy and cigars had pro- 
duced their full effect upon the soldiers, who, without 
provocation, drew their swords, and ran a-muck at all 
who crossed their paths. 

Sixty-one persons were carried to the hospitals, all 
more or less severely wounded, some of them mortally. 
Among the latter was the Imperial Councillor Manga- 
nini, a man in his seventy-fourth year, who had always 
been the sworn friend of Austria. Before the massa- 
cre began, orders were sent by the police to the hospi- 
tals to prepare beds, and means of carriage for the 
wounded. Some of the sufferers were doomed to im- 
prisonment, in addition to all they had already endured, 
and now a new atrocity was perpetrated ; one, says the 
Marquis d'Azeglio, " which I could not credit, and 
which I deemed a calumny even on the Austrian po- 
lice, until I was forced to admit the fact, — the wounds 
of the prisoners remained undressed. Two among 
them died of gangrene, and the others lay in danger of 
their lives." 



MASSACRE IN MILAN. 121 

The exasperation produced by these enormities was • 
not confined to any section of Italian society ; it pro- 
voked the most strenuous protests, even on the part of 
men the least prone to resistance against established 
authority. The parish priest of the cathedral waited 
on the Viceroy at the head of his clergy, and said that 
he had witnessed the horrors of war during his long 
career (he was eighty-five years of age) ; he had seen 
the Russians and French entering Milan as conquerors ; 
but he had never beheld such a scene of deliberate 
murder as that which had just been enacted. On the 
same day, the Archbishop concluded his discourse from 
the pulpit of the cathedral with these words : — " Bre- 
thren, unite with me in prayers to God to inspire our 
rulers with more justice and humanity." 

Five days after the massacre of Milan, another mili- 
tary outrage was committed in Pavia. The students 
of the University were following the corpse of one of 
their companions to the grave, when they were met by 
two officers with cigars in their mouths, who, without 
any provocation, passed in among them, hustling and 
disordering the procession, uttering insulting words 
against the students and the priests, and puffing the 
smoke of their cigars in the faces of those around 
them. The patience of the young men could not en- 
dure against such wanton provocation ; they fell upon the 
officers, who instantly raised an alarm. Help was al- 
ready at hand, for such encounters were never casual, 
but planned and prepared beforehand. A body of 
armed soldiers attacked the students, who suffered 
severely in the unequal contest ; but one of the offi- 
cers was killed on the spot, and the other mortally 
wounded. 

Many other enormities of the same kind were com- 
mitted in other Austrian garrisons ; but we need not 
repeat the details ; those we have given will suffice to 
show the savage spirit of the Austrian rule. Formerly 
6 



122 ITALY. 

the conduct of the Austrian officers had been uniformly 
marked by politeness and moderation ; they had borne 
the demonstrations of aversion to which they were ex- 
posed with a patience and forbearance that excited the 
astonishment of strangers, and which, according to the 
usages of military society, were almost excessive. The 
sudden and complete change in their habits could only 
be accounted for by a change of orders. Formerly 
they had been bidden to submit to insult ; their new 
orders commanded them to disgrace, by their conduct, 
the standard they followed, and the uniform they wore. 
Among them, however, there were some whose abhor- 
rence of the office of the bully was not to be over- 
come by the strongest sense of discipline. "If you 
have insults to avenge," said General Walmoden to his 
soldiers on the 3d of January, "first arm the citizens, 
and then fight them ; do not turn murderers." 

To quell the spirit of burning hatred their misdeeds 
had evoked, the Austrian authorities had recourse to 
their usual nostrums, — brute force, diabolical lies, and 
pettifogging tyranny. Martial law was proclaimed, 
and multitudes were visited with fines, imprisonment, 
or exile, without form of trial. 

The police, among other stratagems, attempted that 
which had met with so much success in Galicia, viz. 
to spread among the people a notion that the severi- 
ties of the Government were caused by the extravagant 
political claims of the rich and the nobles, who were 
thus the cause of all the sufferings inflicted on their 
humbler fellow-countrymen. But the latter saw 
through the trick and expressed their contempt for it 
in this pointed sentence : — " The Galician florin (the 
bloodmoney paid at Tarnow) shall not pass current in 
Lombardy." 

Indefatigable in their efforts to discover the central 
committee to w T hose machinations they attributed all 
then* troubles, the Austrian bureaucrats were fretted 



AUSTRIAN STATECRAFT. 123 

into a ludicrous state of rage and perplexity by their 
inability to seize that imaginary body. Themselves 
accustomed to the dark and tortuous ways of official 
conspiracy, and familiar only with the baser impulses 
of human nature, they could not comprehend, far less 
make a practical stand against, the wondrous workings 
of a national enthusiasm. They could not imagine 
how a whole nation, animated by one common hatred, 
one hope, one desire, should spontaneously display a 
unity of thought, word, and action, immeasurably sur- 
passing that of their own mercenary confederacy. It 
is worth while to preserve, as a relic of obsolete bar- 
barism, some record of the pedantic tyranny with 
which the Governor and police of Milan endeavored to 
bind down, by rule and schedule, modes of expression 
as various and uncontrollable as thought itself. In a 
proclamation issued by Count Spaur, the Governor, on 
the 2 2d of February, not only were the severest penal- 
ties denounced against disturbers of the public peace, 
but gestures, looks, particular colors, special modes of 
applauding at the theatre, and a long list of equally 
nonsensical matters, were prohibited, as if it were pos- 
sible to suppress all marks of recognition among those 
who share the same political enthusiasm. The Milanese, 
who would not smoke to benefit the Imperial exche- 
quer, ate Neapolitan macaroni in the streets, under the 
noses of the authorities, in token of then joy that 
their brethren of the south had obtained a constitution. 
The police prohibited the Calabrian hat and feather, 
which every one in Milan had assumed in honor of the 
Sicilian revolt. But what was the result of the prohi- 
bition ? By one accord the Milanese agreed to express 
their political sympathy by turning the hat-buckle in 
front of the hat, and the man who would wear his hat- 
band in any other fashion, ran as much risk of being 
insulted by the populace as if he smoked in the street. 
These are trifles, — ludicrous trifles, and yet they are as 



124 ITALY. 

significant as graver facts, both as regards the intense 
unanimous hostility of the Lombards to their foreign 
rulers, and as marking the stupid, inquisitorial in- 
tolerance of the Austrian bureaucrats. 

An attempt has recently been made by some English 
worshippers of absolutism, and apostles of paradox, to 
persuade us that the Austrian rule has been a blessing 
to Lombardy. The argument by which this monstrous 
fallacy is supported, consists in impudently claiming 
for Austria the merit of creating that prosperity which 
she did not, or could not, destroy. It is true that, in 
spite of all impediments, Lombardy had become the 
most flourishing kingdom in Europe, and that more 
wealth and solid comfort were diffused among all 
classes of her people than in any other country ; but 
for these advantages she was indebted solely to the 
prodigious fertility of her soil, the excellence of her 
agricultural system, her abundant means of internal 
communication, and the wonderful mechanism of her 
system of irrigation, both dating from the times of her 
early freedom, and above all, to those institutions of 
local self-government which the central authority found 
it impossible to subvert or neutralize. What was 
really well done in Lombardy, was done by the people 
themselves : the Government in no way aided them in 
farming, manufactures, or commerce ; whatever it 
touched, it marred ; whatever duties it took upon itself, 
it performed with the most scandalous incapacity and 
dishonesty. The praise bestowed on it by its eccentric 
English eulogists for its support of charitable and edu- 
cational establishments, is given to an administration 
that began its charity by confiscating all the charitable 
funds, appropriating them as a basis for a government 
stock, and then generously contributing to the charities 
their own funds ! Its educational activity consisted in 
jobbing away the professorships in the universities, 
seizing the schools of Lombardy, regulating the in- 



AUSTRIAN RULE IN ITALY. 125 

structions so as to teach obedience to the Emperor, — 
" such as the slave owes to his master," with a like 
limitation of every science to the requirements of poli- 
tical and ecclesiastical absolutism, and then forcing all 
persons to send their children to those training-places 
for slaves. Its system of taxation was heavy, vexa- 
tious, and fearfully demoralizing. Commerce, groan- 
ing under its fiscal rapacity, and burdened by Govern- 
ment monopolies, was further restricted to favor the 
German interests of Austria. Public offices, even judi- 
cial posts, were filled by foreigners, often ignorant of 
the native language. The Germans were systemati- 
cally favored ; the Italians were systematically de- 
graded. Espionage finished the work of corruption. 
Even to converse it was necessary to walk out of ear- 
range of walls. Stand still in the streets, and a soldier 
came up to question your business. Your correspon- 
dence was searched. To study, even to think, was a 
political offence, punishable with perpetual imprison- 
ment. The wealthy Lombard who would live at peace 
with the prying Government, had only two courses 
open to him : either to earn the execration of his coun- 
trymen by boundless servility to their oppressors, or to 
play the fool like Brutus at the court of Tarquin. 
Frivolity and dissipation were, in the eyes of the 
paternal government, the most precious tokens of good 
citizenship. But these virtues might be overdone : a 
dangerous error ! The son of the Marchioness Son- 
cino was among the persons doomed to exile in 
February, 1848; when his mother sought to excuse 
him, affirming that he had never meddled with poli- 
tics, the Director of Police replied that he spent too 
much money, and ivas too ptopular. 

Most of the facts here set down are patent to the 
widest notoriety ; they are all attested by an irresisti- 
ble mass of evidence of every kind. They are not the 
less true because the apologists of Austria choose to 



126 ITALY. 

deny them. If the old Austrian administration was 
such a blessing to Lombardy as they tell us it was, 
surely its beneficial effects must have been still more 
strongly felt at home ; but its own favored metropoli- 
tan province rose against it with loathing and execra- 
tion, and shook it off for ever as an unclean thing. Is 
it likely that Lombardy was more wisely, justly, and 
humanely treated by the Imperial Government than 
Austria Proper ? 

By no law, save that of the strong hand, could the 
right of self-government be denied to a people such as 
that of Lombardy, who had become so rich, so pros- 
perous, and so physically powerful, through the culti- 
vation of their own native resources, and the exercise 
of their own inborn energies. Austria's tenure of Lom- 
bardy and Venice is simply that of forcible possession ; 
her pretended hereditary title is a baseless figment, 
that outrages all history. She herself is too well 
aware of the weakness of that claim which others have 
set up for her, and she is content to rest her title on 
the treaty of Vienna, — a treaty which she herself, in 
common with every great power of Europe, has broken 
at pleasure, and one to which neither Lombardy nor 
Venice was a consulted or subscribing party. Iniqui- 
tous force was the sole foundation of Austria's rule in 
Italy ; violence and perfidy were its means of action, 
and its aim and end was spoliation. In comparison 
with the other provinces of the empire, the taxation 
of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom bore an inordi- 
nate ratio to its population. Many millions sterling, 
extorted from Italian industry, went annually to re- 
cruit the dilapidated finances of the Viennese exche- 
quer ; and in order that this system of pillage might 
be prosecuted with the more ease and safety, that the 
Imperial prerogative of misgoverning 4,500,000 
Italians might not be endangered by the appearance 
of good government in any other part of the Penin- 



AUSTRIAN RULE IN ITALY. 127 

sula, the Austrian Emperor for three-and-thirty years 
absolutely prohibited every extension of liberty and 
every reform of abuses throughout the states inhabited 
by the other 18 or 19 millions of Italians. 



128 ITALY. 



CHAPTER VI. 
ITALY. 

THE WAR IN LOMBARDY. 

When the news of the revolution in Vienna reached 
Milan, the people nocked in great numbers to the 
Government-house, and demanded the release of all* 
political prisoners, and the formation of a National 
Guard. The soldiers on duty at the palace fired a 
volley over the heads of the crowd, as it is said ; at all 
events no one was wounded : still . such an impression 
was made that a second discharge would have sent the 
people flying ; but just at the moment of wavering, a 
boy of sixteen drew out a pistol and fired at the 
soldiery, exclaiming " Viva V Italia!" The shot and 
the cry had a magical effect ; the crowd rushed for- 
ward ; the guard was overpowered in a moment ; the 
vice-governor, O'Donnell, was made prisoner ; and the 
tri-color banner was planted on the palace. Some 
Croats afterwards fired on the people and killed five or 
six of them ; and this became the signal for a general 
rising. Instead of sending all his force to clear the 
streets, Radetski hesitated, and withdrew his men 
within their respective barracks. By the time he had 
made up his mind to act, the affair was decided, the 
city was barricaded, and it was impossible to retake it 
without a bombardment. The events in Vienna suffi- 
ciently account for the marshal's indecision ; for if he 
ordered a second massacre of the Milanese, he knew 
not but that he would have to answer for it with his 



REVOLT OF MILAN. 129 

head before a Constitutional Government in the capital. 
His policy was to gain time for the purpose of commu- 
nicating, if possible, with Vienna, before he resorted to 
the last extremity of a bombardment. He acted, 
therefore, only on the defensive, keeping possession of 
the citadel, a few wide streets practicable for artillery, 
and the city walls and gates, so as to hinder the insur- 
gents from receiving succor from without. The 
Milanese meanwhile summoned the surrounding people 
to their aid, in despatches sent by small balloons ; they 
contested their native streets inch by inch, and really 
displayed the most exalted valor : but for their success 
in defeating, without arms and ammunition (they had 
not more than five or six hundred guns and pistols 
among them) 12,000 regular troops, well provided 
with cavalry and artillery, and taking the city out of 
their hands at a cost of only 100 killed, 250 wounded, 
and a few houses burned or sacked, the men of Milan 
were certainly indebted to something else than their 
own bravery. 

The conflict was kept up day and night until the 
23d. The great object of the people was to get pos- 
session of one of the gates, in order that the communi- 
cation with their friends outside should be opened. It 
was not until the evening of the 23d that they suc- 
ceeded at the Porta Tosa. A set of brave young fel- 
lows made up bundles of fascines, which they rolled 
before them, firing from the shelter thus afforded, 
while a flanking fire from the houses on each side 
covered their advance. In this way, after long efforts, 
the artillerymen were picked off one by one — the 
Milanese being sharpshooters of perfect aim — until at 
last a dash was made, and the gate and the houses 
covering it were set on fire. Radetski's position was 
no longer tenable, for Milan is a place of no military 
strength whatever ; he therefore began at once his re- 
treat in the direction of Verona. 
i 6 * 



130 ITALY. 

The example of Milan was followed by most of the 
other cities of Lombardy, and by Venice, which de- 
clared itself again a Republic. The fate of the Aus- 
trian rule depended on Mantua and Verona. Had 
Radetski been shut out from these towns, he must 
have been forced to capitulate ; but both were preserved 
for Austria, as well as the two less important fortresses 
dependent on them, Legnano and Peschiera, by the 
perfidy of persons in high station. In Mantua the 
bishop, in Verona some nobleman speaking in the 
name of the Viceroy, persuaded the people that the 
panic-stricken Austrian troops desired nothing more 
than a momentary hah within their walls, while pre- 
paring finally to evacuate Italy, and that it would be 
good policy to afford them every facility for their 
retreat. Deceived by these representations, the towns- 
people allowed Radetski to secure himself in the 
military centre of the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, in 
fortresses almost impregnable ; and from that moment 
the independent cause was virtually lost. 

On the very day that Radetski began his retreat, 
the Piedmontese army under Charles Albert crossed 
the frontier, and on the 27th its vanguard arrived 
under the walls . of Milan. The king, however, de- 
clined to enter the city, " until he should have become 
worthy of so brave a people, by gaining a victory over 
the Austrians." But inauy causes prevented the ac- 
complishment of that purpose, — chiefly his own bad 
generalship, his selfishness, jealousy, and double deal- 
ing, and the imbecility of the Provisional Government. 

That Government included Casati, Borromeo, Litta, 
and other men of worth and talent, who had assumed 
authority whilst the fight was pending in the streets. 
Often afterwards did they take credit to themselves for 
the civic heroism they displayed in thus exposing 
themselves to the superior danger of such a position ; 
for, said they, had the Austrians been successful, our 



PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN. 131 

lives would have been the first forfeited. But they 
were not so brave as they wished themselves to be 
thought; in fact, their official conduct warrants the 
belief that their chief care w$s to make themselves 
safe in any contingency. During the whole struggle 
they abstained from every kind of measure that could 
be regarded as seriously imperilling the Austrian inte- 
rests ; and when the war was over, they might fairly 
represent themselves to the victor as loyal subjects, 
who, by appearing to fall in with the popular humor, 
had been enabled to control it and render its outbreaks 
harmless. Some of the members of the Provisional 
Government were Monarchists, others were Republi- 
cans ; for their mutual convenience they agreed upon 
a perfectly neutral policy — the bane of all popular en- 
thusiasm. Their administration was a series of enor- 
mous blunders in matters of police, finance, military 
affairs, &c. The direction of the police was committed 
to a triumvirate that really swayed the whole politi- 
cal power of the State, and the ablest member of 
which was the Baron Sopransi, a zealous partisan of 
Austria, and the brother-in-law of General Welden, by 
whose orders, and under whose own eyes, seven-ancl- 
twenty Lombard volunteers were first mutilated and 
then shot in the town ditch of Trent. 

The parishes of Lombardy are grouped together in 
districts, over each of which there is a commissary of 
police, who exercises a dictatorial power like that of the 
Turkish cadis. The first act of the revolutionary 
Government should have been to remove these men, 
yet they were all allowed to remain and plot for the 
return of their old masters. The country was overrun 
with vagabonds whom the Austrians let loose from the 
bagnio of Mantua, and with pretended deserters from 
the Austrian troops. In many a district chief town 
the commissary had a little praitorian guard, composed 
of these and other bad characters ; and by this means 



132 ITALY. 

the Austrian^ were regularly informed of all the move- 
ments of. the Lombards, whilst the latter remained in 
ignorance of what it most imported them to know. It 
was also in consequence of this permanent conspiracy, 
tolerated by the Government, that the provender and 
other, things intended for the Piedmontese army fell 
several times into the hands of the enemy ; many 
villages were burned, and the lives of landowners were 
threatened by revolted peasants. The great bulk of 
the rural population took no part in these disorders, 
but they were afraid to venture on putting them down, 
for the language of the commissary and his satellites 
was always this : — " Radetski will soon be back ; of 
that you may be very certain. Neither he nor his men 
will ever be driven out of this country ; and when he 
returns there will be a day of reckoning for all — those 
that shall have remained true to him will have their 
share of what shall be taken from the malignants : and 
as for those who cannot give a good account of them- 
selves, they will be nailed to their own doors. You 
know what you have to expect, so act accordingly." 

There is a powder manufactory at Lembrate, a few 
leagues from Milan. One morning in the beginning 
of May, when no one dreamed of the possible approach 
of the Austrians, it became known in the capital that 
the Lembrate magazine had been attacked during the 
night by a party of Austrians in disguise. Who then 
had guided them ? How had they advanced almost 
to the gates of Milan without any notice being taken of 
their march ? The mystery remained unsolved ; and 
the director of the police maintained a disdainful 
silence. Another day the (jenerole was suddenly beaten, 
and the National Guard hurried to the city jail, from 
which five hundred thieves and robbers were in the act 
of making their escape. These fellows were all armed 
with muskets, and had their pockets filled with am- 
munition ; they had seized the keepers of the prison 



TRAITORS IN MILAN. 133 

and locked tliern up. After promptly quelling the 
revolt, and securing all the prisoners, the National 
Guard handed the keepers over to justice, as guilty of 
having armed the culprits, and connived at their 
escape. There was the more ground for such a suspicion, 
because the prison keepers had not been changed after 
the Revolution ; and a considerable amount of Austrian 
coin was found in the pockets of both prisoners and 
keepers. The matter was nevertheless allowed to drop. 

The finances were not better administered than the 
police : they were managed on a bad system, and by 
knavish hands. The most shameful embezzlements 
were practised in the Ministry of War. The able and 
earnest Count Litta, who at first held that office, 
having been forced to resign, he was succeeded by 
Collegno, an honest, but weak man, whose passive 
character was more acceptable to the Provisional 
Government. The Paymaster-general was a merchant 
notorious for having committed four fraudulent bank- 
ruptcies. The Lombard army and the free corps 
wanted shoes, coats, great-coats, and almost every 
object of prime necessity. The arming of the people 
was stopped for want of money, and yet the incomes 
of all the affluent families were poured into the public 
treasury. Nothing was talked of in the town but the 
audacious robberies committed by one or another 
member of the administration. 

The whole population of Lombardy were eager to 
take up arms in the cause of independence. In twenty- 
four hours an army of partisans might have been set on 
foot that would have been a most useful auxiliary to the 
regular forces. But every man who offered himself in 
the capacity of a volunteer was treated with indignity 
by the Piedmontese officers, and by the Lombard 
Ministry of War, which was entirety subservient to the 
King of Sardinia, Those volunteers who had been 
accepted in the first days of the Revolution were left 



134 ITALY. 

without pay or provisions, exposed to needless and 
profitless dangers, and persecuted in every way that 
low cunning could contrive. The reason of this was 
that Charles Albert, intent before all things on the 
acquisition of the iron crown, would rather have had 
Lombardy remain for ever enthralled to Austria, than 
that it should owe its freedom to any arms besides his 
own. Therefore it was that he sedulously deprecated 
French intervention, rejected the many offers of service 
made to the national cause by foreign officers and 
generals, maltreated the Lombard volunteers, and 
received as ungraciously as possible the soldiers sent to 
him by the other Italian States. 

Immediately after its installation, the Provisional 
Government invoked the aid of the other States of 
Italy. It was not, of course, to be expected that an 
Austrian Grand Duke of Tuscany, a Roman Pontiff 
and a Neapolitan Bourbon, should willingly assist the 
house of Savoy and the revolted population of Milan in 
driving the Austrians out of the Peninsula, especially 
when their troops were to be at the command of a man 
who complacently allowed his flatterers to designate 
him as the King of Italy. The invitation to those po- 
tentates was merely an act of courtesy, and meant 
nothing, except inasmuch as it was addressed to their 
subjects. The people of the several States did, indeed, 
respond to the appeal, and large contingents were fur- 
nished by Parma, Modena, Tuscany, Rome, and Na- 
ples ; but the arts employed to neutralize the efforts of 
these troops were, unhappily, too successful. 

When the Piedmontese army reached Milan on the 
2*7th of March, Radetski was still within a distance of 
five-and-twenty miles of the city. Had Charles Albert 
made two or three forced marches, he might easily have 
prevented the concentration of the Austrian forces, and 
extinguished the war. Instead of this, he allowed Ra- 
detski to pursue his march without molestation for a 



135 

week, and shut himself up securely in Verona. On the 
8th of April, Charles Albert forced the Austrian lines 
on the Mincio in three places between Mantua and Ve- 
rona. He then crossed the Adige at Pontone to the 
north of Verona, cutting off Radetski from the valley 
of the Trent, and from a junction with Nugent, who 
-was advancing to his aid from the north-east. After 
some manoeuvring in this direction, the Piedmontese 
army was obliged to fall back on its former position, 
and on the 2 2d, Nugent brought Radetski a reinforce- 
ment of 15,000 men. 

Durando, the commander of the 14,000 Roman 
auxiliaries, might have prevented this calamity, but evi- 
dently would not. Durando was a brave officer, of un- 
blemished reputation, who had served with distinction 
in the civil wars of Spain ; but the hopes excited by 
his name were in all respects miserably disappointed. 
His head-quarters were at Ferrara, from which no en- 
treaties of the Milanese could induce him to move, until 
his troops themselves forced him to cross the Po, and 
march against the enemy. Immediately there appeared 
a manifesto from Pius IX., announcing that the sole 
mission of his army was to defend the integrity of the 
Roman territory, and reiterating the injunction laid 
upon the general never to assume the offensive against 
Austria. This manifesto, which was said to have been 
followed by secret orders to General Durando to fall 
back upon Ferrara, excited a formidable commotion in 
Rome and the provinces, and an insurrection seemed 
imminent. Charles Albert sent word to Durando that, 
having actually entered upon the theatre of the war, 
he had thereby become bound to obey no other orders 
than those of the commander-in-chief, namely, himself, 
Charles Albert, and must therefore march, without re- 
gard to any injunction to the contrary which he might 
receive from other quarters. The Roman army sup- 
ported the protest of Charles Albert, and the popula- 



136 ITALY. 

tion of Rome insisted that the Pope should retract his 
manifesto. Durando resolved to march, and was some 
days afterwards authorized to do so by Pius IX. him- 
self. There is reason to fear, however, that the Pope's 
secret orders remained still in force. No other suppo- 
sition can afford a plausible explanation for his gene- 
ral's subsequent conduct. We cannot acquit them, 
both ; we must condemn the one or the other. Either 
the Pope was guilty of duplicity, or Durando of base 
perfidy. 

After crossing the Po, the Roman general regulated 
his movements with great exactness by those of Nugent, 
advancing as the latter retired, retrograding as he £#- 
vanced, and always studiously shunning an engagement ; 
whilst the Austrians devastated everything in their 
way, and seized town after town. At length, having 
seen Nugent make his unopposed entry into Verona, 
Durando wheeled round and took up his quarters in 
Vicenza, which had sustained a bombardment of seve- 
ral hours by Nugent, and, with the help of some corps 
of volunteers under General Antonini, had compelled 
him to raise the siege. 

Meanwhile Charles Albert had laid siege to Pes- 
chiera on the 18th of May. The Austrians attempted 
a diversion for its relief, but were foiled and beaten at 
Goito. Peschiera was taken on the 30th, after two 
days' fighting, and Charles Albert established his head- 
quarters there. Whilst he was busy pushing his con- 
quests further north along the banks of the Lago di 
Garda, Radetski made an unexpected sortie from Ve- 
rona, and appeared before Vicenza with 30,000 men. 
The King of Sardinia, who had just taken Rivoli after 
a sanguinary battle, sent a courier to Durando to know 
how long he could hold out. " Six or eight days, at least," 
was the reply ; and Charles Albert took his measures 
accordingly to succor the town. No attempt was made 
to prevent the Austrians from getting possession of the 



DURANDO'S EQUIVOCAL CONDUCT. 137 

heights that commanded the town. This was a mis- 
fortune, but it was not irreparable. General Durando 
seemed to think otherwise, for the bombardment was 
no sooner begun than he hoisted the white flag The 
citizens instantly compelled him to withdraw it and 
continue the fight; but, in the very midst of the en- 
gagement, the unlucky white flag again appeared on 
another side of the town. The enraged inhabitants 
fired upon it and brought it down; but though the 
sign of surrender fell, the thing it represented was 
realized ; the town capitulated after eight hours' fight- 
ing, with an army within its walls for its defence, and 
another army at the distance of a few hours' march to 
succor it. Durando had stipulated that he should be 
allowed to quit the city with his soldiers and such of 
the citizens as chose to accompany him, with arms and 
baggage, and he engaged for himself and his troops 
not to take up arms against Austria for three months. 

Thinking that the Austrians were still before Vicenza, 
Charles Albert marched against Verona on the 12th of 
June ; but already Radetski had returned thither, and 
the Piedmontese were compelled to retire within their 
lines. In the subsequent part of the month Radetski 
captured Padua and Palma Nuova, and made prize of 
a large quantity of artillery and warlike stores. The 
road to Vienna and Inspruck now lay open to him, and 
he was master of the whole Venetian territory, with the 
exception of the capital. Thither General Pepe, the 
commander of the Neapolitan contingent, retired. The 
regular soldiers under his command left him, obeying 
the order for their recall issued by the King of Naples. 
A few legions of volunteers alone remained with him ; 
a third at least of those that had. entered Lombardy 
had returned home in disgust, and told their country- 
men who were preparing to march for the seat of war, 
" They do not wish for us there. Why should we 
thrust our services upon them against their will V 



138 ITALY. 

In the beginning of July we find the Piedmontese 
army occupying a line of about thirty nriles.in length, 
— from near Mantua on its right, to Rivoli on its left. 
The head-quarters, which had been at Peschiera, were 
removed to Vallegio, and afterwards to Riverbella, and 
the strength of the army was gradually accumulated on 
the right wing in order to invest Mantua, whilst the 
left wing was most imprudently weakened. The lines 
of Rivoli were not defended by more than 3000 troops, 
and those of Somma Campagna, extending from Busso- 
longo on the Upper Adige, to Vallegio on the Mincio, 
by not more than 5000. 

If the siege of an impregnable place like Mantua 
served no other purpose, it at least enabled Charles 
Albert to rid himself of most of his remaining auxiliaries. 
The students of the University of Pa via, and those of 
the lyceums and colleges of Milan, formed themselves 
into battalions, and demanded to be sent forthwith 
against the enemy. They were ordered to Mantua, 
where they were encamped directly within range of the 
Austrian cannons, as if on purpose that they might be 
cut to pieces. One hundred Swiss volunteers shared 
the same fate ; two only of them survived, the other 
ninety-eight were killed, — not in battle, but passively, 
when at rest in their camp. The indignation expressed 
by the people of Milan at the intelligence received from 
the camp before Mantua, was too formidable to be 
slighted, and the tents were removed to a more suitable 
position. 

The Tuscan volunteers were made victims to the 
same diabolical policy. They were employed in the 
nominal blockade of Mantua, being posted on the 
marshy side of the town, and in that deadly position 
they were left without relief for a whole week. The 
lake, as it is called, that encompasses one half of Man- 
tua, is a pestilential marsh, extending to the very walls 
of the town. There the Tuscan soldiers remained, 



CHARLES ALBERT OUTGENERALLED. 139 

plunged in the fetid mud and stagnant water, without 
even the consolation of knowing that their sufferings 
were of the smallest avail ; for the pretended block- 
ade of Mantua existed only on the side next the lake, 
whilst everywhere else there was free ingress and 
egress. 

Radetski was meanwhile preparing to seize the game 
which his unskilful antagonist was playing into his 
hands. Seeing that Charles Albert's whole attention 
was directed towards the south, he kept him in that 
disposition by well-contrived feints. A little victory 
gained by General Bava over 3000 or 4000 Austrians 
at Governolo, near the junction of the Mincio and the 
Po, also contributed to the same end, and filled the 
king and his army with fallacious hopes. But sud- 
denly, on the 2 2d July, news arrived that the Austrians 
had been quietly passing the Upper Adige, at the foot 
of the mountain that overlooks Rivoli, and had already 
descended on La Corona, driving before them the few 
Piedmontese that were stationed there. Next day 
they pushed on from La Corona, and carried the 
plateau and all the lines of Rivoli ; whilst another 
Austrian force, 25,000 strong, under General Aspre, 
assaulted the lines of Somma Campagna. The 5000 
men that defended them made a gallant resistance; but 
the force of the assailants was overwhelming, and the 
Austrians regained the whole territory between the 
Upper Adige and the Lago di Garda and the Mincio, 
from the foot of Montebaldo, and from Bussolongo to 
Vallegio, Peschiera being placed in a state of complete 
isolation. 

Getting together nearly 30,000 men, Charles Al- 
bert advanced on the evening of the 25th against the 
heights between Bussolongo and Vallegio. The 
decisive battle, which was fought next day, bears the 
name of Somma Campagna, where the centre of the 
Austrian force was established. It lasted from five in 



140 ITALY. 

the morning* to five in the evening, the Piedmontese 
fighting with desperate courage, until Radetski came 
up with a reserve of nearly 20,000 men from 
Verona, and the Austrians obtained a complete 
victory. 

On the 27th, Charles Albert began his retreat. In 
the beginning of the month he is said to have had an 
army of 80,000 men. The corps with which he 
marched from the Mincio to the Oglio, scarcely 
amounted to 20,000 men. He arrived on the 3d of 
August at Milan, where he idly boasted that he would 
make a stand beneath its walls. The Milanese took 
earnest measures for defence ; barricades were raised, 
and a large amount of property was sacrificed by the 
burning of all the houses of the suburbs, near the Porta 
Romana ; but on the 6th Charles Albert began his re- 
treat to his own dominions, having entered into a capi- 
tulation with Radetski, and on the following day the 
Austrian marshal again ruled in Milan. 

Two or three days afterwards an armistice of forty 
days was published between the Sardinians and the 
Austrians, It restored the status quo ante helium, and 
provided for the evacuation not only of Peschiera and 
Placentia, but of Venice also. A part only of the 
latter arrangement could be effected ; the Piedmontese 
troops were withdrawn from Venice; but the city, 
once more the seat of a republic, regained its indepen- 
dence. 

On every other point things rapidly returned to their 
old state. Parma and Modena again adopted the 
Austrian system, and General Welden even made an 
incursion into the Legations and occupied Bologna. 
The inhabitants, however, rose against him and ex- 
pelled him ; the Pope remonstrated, and Welden was 
censured and recalled. 

On the morning of the day when the Austrians re- 
entered Milan, a message was sent from their camp aiv 



MILANESE EXILES. 141 

nouncing that all the men between eighteen and forty 
years of age, who should be found in the city, should 
be immediately enrolled in the Croat regiments, and 
sent across the mountains ; those who preferred exile 
were to be allowed until eight o'clock in the evening to 
quit the city. The alternative was eagerly seized by 
the unfortunate population, more than two-thirds of 
whom, of both sexes, young and old, rich and poor, 
crowded out of the gate opposite to that through which 
the victor was to make his entry. Ere the last rising- 
ground was passed that would shut out the desolated 
city from their view, the wretched multitude turned 
with one accord to take their last look of that modern 
Jerusalem. The sky was red above Milan, and dense 
volumes of smoke were rising to the clouds. What 
fire was that ? Was it the conflagration of the 
suburbs not yet extinguished % Was the Austrian be- 
ginning his vindictive work of destruction? Or had 
the flames been lighted by patriot hands, in the 
desperate resolve to leave nothing to the enemy but 
smoking ruins ? All was vague conjecture, and to this 
hour the matter remains involved in impenetrable 
mystery ; only a great number of mansions half con- 
sumed by the flames, the ordnance establishment, and 
the military hospital of St. Ambrose, bear testimony in 
their ruins to the magnitude of the disaster. 

Order now reigned in Milan, that is to say, Austrian 
order — order as understood by the men who planned 
and perpetrated the massacres of January. The con- 
victs of Porta Nuova were set at liberty, and joined the 
soldiers in the work of plundering the deserted houses, 
the churches, and the national museums. Generals 
Rivaira and Roger, detained in Milan by illness, were 
condemned to death. Various circumstances rendering 
the process of confiscation inconvenient to the authori- 
ties, recourse was had to a more profitable system of 
forced contributions, the management of which was in- 



142 ITALY. 

trusted to a committee, headed by that very Baron 
Sopransi whom we have spoken of as director of the 
Milanese police under the Provisional Government. 
The system was not sparingly or transiently enforced. 
On the 11 th of November, Iiadetski issued a decree, in 
which, after a preamble on the imperial clemency, he 
calls upon some two hundred families, specified by 
name, to supply him with two millions of livres (say 
80,000/.), more than half the sum to be extorted from 
five of the most illustrious, viz. Visconti, Borromeo, 
Litta, Pio, and Casati. No fear that hatred of Austria 
will soon die out in Lombardy ! 



REPUBLIC OF VENICE. 143 



CHAPTER VII. 
ITALY. 



THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE PROJECTED FEDERATION OF THE 

ITALIAN STATES ROYAL VILLANY IN NAPLES THE WAR 

BETWEEN SICILY AND NAPLES REVOLUTION IN ROME. 

Five months had elapsed since Venice, forsaken by- 
all her allies, had singly maintained her independence. 
Within that time her sanguine hopes of French inter- 
vention were disappointed ; the Sardinian fleet and 
garrison were withdrawn, in conformity with the terms 
of the armistice ; the blockade was Dressed more 
closely, until it was broken by the French «. madron, 
which then withdrew, and the Austrian fleet reappeared; 
but being again threatened by that of Sardinia, it re- 
turned to Trieste, and the blockade was only kept up 
on the land side. 

The revolt of Venice, like that of Milan, immediately 
followed the news of the revolution in Vienna, which 
was published by Count Palfy, the Governor, in the 
theatre, on the evening of the 1 7th of March. Next 
morning the people congregated in St. Mark's Place, 
and effected by force the deliverance of their venerated 
leaders, Manini and Tommaseo, whose civic virtue had 
been rewarded by Austria according to her wont. As 
public fun ctionaries they had dared, in December, 1847, 
to address memorials to the Austrian Government, 
praying that it would perform its own promises and 
observe its own laws. For this offence they were 



144 ITALY. 

thrown into prison, from which the} T were released by 
their countrymen to become, one of them President 
and the other Minister of the resuscitated Republic. 
The expulsion of the Austrians was effected at Venice 
with even more surprising facility than at Milan, 
Marinowich, the Commander of the Arsenal, was slain 
in the first outbreak, and Count Zichy, the Military 
Commander, whom seven-and-twenty years' residence 
in Venice had made more than half Italian in feeling, 
withdrew his troops without a blow. The Republic 
of St. Mark was unanimously proclaimed ; but the 
Venetians were censured as schismatics by the pre- 
dominant party, which at that time advocated the 
scheme for one united kingdom of Upper Italy ; Manini 
was induced to surrender the government to a Sar- 
dinian commissary ; Charles Albert lent the city a 
small sum of money and a garrison of 2000 men, and 
for the first time in the history of Italy the cross of 
Savoy superseded the winged lion of the Republic. 
Upon the defeat of the Sardinian army, however, the 
people '.iuiurew the conditional allegiance they had 
plighted to a sovereign who merited neither their 
respect nor their gratitude, and once more they pro- 
claimed the independent government of their own 
worthy political chief, Manini. 

Since the occupation of the mainland by the Aus- 
trian armies, and of the Adriatic by their cruisers, the 
commerce of Venice has wholly ceased, and not a 
florin reaches it from abroad. The average monthly 
expenditure, estimated in July at 88,000/., has since 
been augmented by the arrival of multitudes of volun- 
teers from all parts of Italy, who day by day have 
flocked to that last rampart of Italian independence. 
To meet the increased demand on her impoverished 
exchequer, Venice began by applying to all the Italian 
towns, and to some foreign ones, for a loan ; subscrip- 
tions were everywhere opened, but they remained 



STEADFAST RESISTANCE OF THE VENETIANS. 145 

almost blank. It was then proposed to pawn some of 
the magnificent objects of art with which Venice 
abounds, but the administration sternly withstood every 
proposal of the kind. " These treasures," they said, 
" do not belong exclusively to the existing generation ; 
our forefathers have bequeathed to us in these master- 
pieces something of their genius and their souls which 
we must transmit to our children. We must and will 
defend and save our country without despoiling it." 
Meanwhile the absolute cessation of all trade and 
employment demanded the most strenuous efforts to 
succor the poorer classes. The Venetian capitalists 
promptly responded to the call. The Government 
issued bills for four millions of florins, the payment of 
which was guaranteed by the personal liability of 
twenty of the wealthiest men in Venice ; and such was 
the confidence placed in the honor of those generous 
men, that whilst Venice was attacked by sea and land 
her paper money passed current at par throughout all 
Italy. According to a recent calculation, the citizens 
of Venice have contributed to the ' republic in the 
course of the year, either in cash or in liabilities, a sum 
of thirty millions of florins. 

Every besieged city must endure sad hardships, but 
some such there are of which Venice, from her peculiar 
position, has a melancholy monopoly. Can the in- 
habitant of London or Paris form any adequate con- 
ception of what is implied in the word blockade when 
said of a city built amidst the waters of the sea, with 
canals for streets and ponds for gardens, and deriving 
from abroad all its consumable stores, from the least 
green thing that grows to the very water for drinking ? 
Nothing but the patient strength for which the soft 
Venetian temperament has always been remarkable, 
could have made it possible to prolong resistance under 
such circumstances. Yet the resistance was cheerful 

K V 



146 ITALY. 

and unanimous ; there was no murmuring or railing, 
and, above all, there was no talk of surrender. 

The means of defence which Venice possesses are as 
follows. The least distance from the city to the main- 
land is two English miles, measured along the railway 
bridge. The line of shore opposite the city is occupied 
for a length of sixty Italian miles by thirty-six forts, all 
in perfect condition, and mounted with fourteen hun- 
dred pieces of artillery. The duty of guarding the 
coast is performed by a small garrison of fifteen hun- 
dred men. They are embarked, in crews of fifteen, on 
board one hundred gunboats, which are incessantly 
plying up and down along the shore. On the side of 
the sea the blockade was in December rendered im- 
practicable by the presence of six French, sixteen 
Sardinian, and thirteen Venetian vessels. The land 
army defending. Veuice consists of nearly twenty 
thousand men, almost all of them volunteers, — Sicilians, 
Neapolitans, Tuscans, Romans, Lombards, Tyrolese, 
Hungarians, and Venetians. Many of the legions are 
commanded by French officers, and the discipline and 
good conduct of all are excellent. Not one case of 
desertion occurred during the last six months. 

There have been several encounters between the 
Austrians and the Venetians, in which the latter have 
been very successful. For instance, on the 22d of 
October, the fort of the Cavallino, occupied by about 
250 Austrians, with three pieces of cannon, was taken, 
and the Austrians were pursued until they passed the 
Prave. On the 27th of October, General Pepe led a 
sortie of 1500 volunteers against the fortified positions 
of the Austrians at Mestre and Fusino, whom they 
defeated, killing and wounding 200, and capturing 
500. 

As soon as the triumph of the Austrian arms in 



MEDIATION. 147 

Lombardy was complete, England hastened to offer, in 
conjunction with France, the mediation which she had 
refused when solicited by Austria herself in the spring. 
The tardy proposal was met 'with contemptuous cold- 
ness ; it was not absolutely rejected, but so well was 
the diplomatic art of fencing employed to parry it, that 
the year was gone before a conference was opened, or 
before it was even determined whether or not there 
should be any conference at all. Towards the end of 
June, Austria had offered to negotiate with the Provi- 
sional Government of Milan on the basis of the entire 
independence of Lombardy, conditional on its taking 
upon itself 100,000,000 florins of the Austrian debt. 
The Milanese Government could not but reject an ac- 
commodation from the benefit of which Venice was 
excluded ; but in December it seemed most unlikely 
that anything but force of arms would ever again extort 
such an offer from Austria. 

Meanwhile the armistice between Austria and 
Sardinia was renewed, and Charles Albert employed 
the interval in diligently recruiting and reorganizing 
his forces ; whether it was that he seriously contem- 
plated another campaign, or that the enemy, impressed 
by his imposing attitude, might adopt so much the 
more moderate a tone in the approaching conference. 
To obtain a favorable peace was, perhaps, the sum of 
his hopes ; but events were ripening both in his own 
dominions and in the rest of the Peninsula, wdiich 
portended far different results. Federation and inde- 
pendence were become the fixed ideas of the Italian 
mind, and the governments were forced to bow before 
them. Democratic ministries were established, and the 
ordinary heading of their proclamations was, " Viva la 
Costituente Italiana /" 

The celebrated Abbate Gioberti is the author of the 
following plan of the Costituente. 

The Italian Constituent Assembly is to prepare a 



148 ITALY. 

federal compact, which, while it respects the existence 
of the different states and their respective forms of 
government, shall tend to insure the liberty, union, and 
independence of Italy. All the states are to return an 
equal number of representatives, and the latter, three 
hundred in number, are to be elected by the respective 
chambers of deputies. The Assembly to meet at 
Rome a month after the approval of the present pro- 
ject by the three Italian parliaments. The deputies of 
Lombardy are to be chosen by the. Lombard Consulta, 
and those of the Venetian provinces by the committees 
and the assembly of Venice. Those of Modena and 
Reggio are to be elected by the Sardinian chamber of 
deputies. The Confederation is to consist of the king- 
dom of Upper Italy, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the 
pontifical dominions, the kingdom of Naples and the 
kingdom of Sicily. The Confederation is to have an 
army, a fleet, a treasury, and a diplomatic representa- 
tion abroad. Its central authority is to be composed 
of a legislative congress and a permanent executive 
power ; the CongTess to consist of two chambers, in one 
of which each state is to be equally represented, and in 
the other the representation is to be proportioned to 
the population. Both are to be elective. The mem- 
bers of the first chamber are to be elected by the con- 
stituted powers of each state, and those of the second 
by the people. The executive power is to be exercised 
by a responsible president and a council of ministers 
equally responsible. The president is appointed for a 
limited period by the legislative council, and the 
ministers by the president. The Congress is to 
deliberate on all matters of general interest for the 
Confederation ; to interfere in case of a collision be* 
tween confederate states and foreign countries, or of a 
mutual difference between confederate states, &c. ; all 
custom duties on goods passing from one state to 
another to be abolished, and the foreign tariff is to be 



INFAMOUS CONDUCT OF THE KINO OF NAPLES. 149 

based on the principle of free trade. The Confedera- 
tion proclaims liberty of the press, individual liberty, 
free municipal institutions, the right of association and 
of petition, civil, political, and religious equality, &c. 

The Grand Duke of Tuscany expressed his hearty 
adherence to the design of an Italian Confederation ; 
Charles Albert acquiesced in it with probably much 
less cordiality ; the Pope had no longer a voice in the 
matter ; and the King of Naples was bent upon 
thwarting it by every means in his power. To that 
base, cruel, and cowardly monarch belongs the distinc- 
tion of having committed the most appalling crime that 
stains the revolutionary records of 1848. 

On the 14th of May, the Deputies assembled to de- 
liberate on the formula of the oath which was to be 
taken by the King and the members of the Chambers, 
in the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore. The Deputies 
were resolved to swear fidelity to the King and to the 
Constitution of the 29th of January, " without prejudice 
to the changes which the Chamber might think proper 
to introduce into it." This latitude was positively given 
to the Chambers by the decree which promulgated the 
constitution. Ferdinand demanded that the oath should 
be taken without restrictions, and several deputations, 
which waited on him to entreat that he would consent 
to the formula adopted by the Deputies, received for 
answer that his resolution could not be shaken. 

The intentions of the King were then clearly appa- 
rent, and were well in accordance with the presence at 
the palace of the infamous Del Carretto. Cambosso, 
his sinister lieutenant, and his associates,, for some days 
past had been going through the popular quarters of 
the city to prepare almost openly the horrible reaction 
which was to fill the city with ruin and blood. The 
Deputies and National Guards then resolved on resist- 
ance, and for the first time Naples beheld barricades 
erected. At ten o'clock in the morning of the 15trj^ 



150 ITALY. 

all the principal streets were completely blocked up, 
and the city presented the most extraordinary appear- 
ance. The Royal Swiss troops, the body-guard, in- 
fantry, cavalry, and artillery, with lighted matches, 
thronged round the palace, and established themselves 
on different points. 

The bold demeanor of the Liberal party intimidated 
Ferdinand, and, as usual with him in all critical mo- 
ments, the subject of his thoughts was how he might 
take back by stratagem the concessions which he was 
read}- to make. At eleven o'clock he made known 
that he was ready to yield to the wishes of the Depu- 
ties ; he announced that the troops were about to with- 
draw, and begged the National Guard to remove the 
barricades and retire. The character of the King, 
however, was too well known, and the trap too appa- 
rent. The National Guard replied, that it would not 
quit the barricades until the decree had been issued, 
and the Deputies exhorted them to maintain this reso- 
iHf on. Things were in this state when an accident 
brought on the conflict. A National Guard having 
''alien down, his musket, which was probably cocked, 
went off. The National Guards placed behind the 
barricade considered it was an act of aggression on the 
part of the Swiss, and fired. The latter returned it, and 
the engagement, once begun, could not be put a stop to. 

The National Guard of Naples amounted to about 
10,000 men ; among them were nearly 2000 nobles 
and 6000 employes* These took no part in the affair, 
so that* the force of the National Guard was reduced 
to about 2000 men ; to which number may be added 
about 500 Calabrians, who were at Naples at the time. 
This little band performed prodigies of valor. At 
Sainte Brigitte, the Swiss mounted five times to the as- 



* Persons who held places,,, of different grades, under go- 
vernment. 



MASSACRE IN NAPLES. 151 

sault, and five times they were repulsed. But the 
small quantity of ammunition possessed by the National 
Guards was soon exhausted, and the defenders of the 
barricades retired into the houses, whence a shower of 
projectiles was hurled on the heads of the troops. The 
artillery then entered the Largo del Castello, and a 
heavy fire of grape was poured on the barricades which 
still held out. The Swiss, who had been joined by the 
•Royal Guard, pursued the National Guard. The 
houses to which they had retired were entered, the 
doors broken open, and women, old men, and children 
were slaughtered, and in many instances their bodies 
thrown from the windows. Where a door could not 
be broken open, the cannon were brought to bear upon 
it, and the inhabitants fell victims to their involuntary 
hospitality. Robbery and plunder were added to these 
indescribable scenes of desolation. The Swiss, who were 
the first to arrive, laid their hands on the money and 
all such valuables as they thought worth taking. Then 
came the Royal Guards, who carried off furniture, 
linen, and other similar movables ; lastly, the Lazza- 
roni, to whom the refuse was acceptable. Murder was 
committed under the slightest pretext, such as a simple 
political imputation, and frequently from no other in- 
citement than the pillage of a richly-furnished house. 

In the beginning of the affray the lower orders 
seemed disposed to side with the National Guard, but 
being offered by the king and the troops the privilege 
of pillage, they went over to their side. Unheard-of 
atrocities were perpetrated by the Lazzaroni acid the 
troops. In one house w r ere shot a father, mother, and 
four children. Other victims were dragged alive 
through the streets to be butchered, struck as they 
went along and insulted by the police and the soldiers, 
who compelled them to cry " Viva il Re ! " * When 

* " Long live the King." 



152 ITALY. 

they refused they were pricked with the points of bay- 
onets. The Royal Guard murdered two sons of the 
Marquis Vassatori in his own palace : the father went 
stark mad. The emissaries of Del Carretto, and, ac- 
cording to some accounts, Del Carretto himself, were 
employed in goading on the rabble to these acts of 
atrocity. 

The massacre lasted eight hours, and might have 
continued longer but for the indignant interference of 
the French Admiral Baudin. The law of nations 
having been violated by the Neapolitan Government, 
the admiral informed the king, that if the disorder was 
not stopped within one hour, he would bring up his 
fleet from Castel-a-Mare and land 9000 men to defend 
the rights of humanity and of nations. When all 
was over the National Guard was suppressed, the Cham- 
ber of Deputies was dissolved, martial law was pro- 
claimed, and the white Bourbon flag was substituted 
for the tricolor. 

Who shall blame the Sicilians if they abhor the 
yoke of such a king as Ferdinand, and yearn to be 
quit for ever of his incorrigible race ? 

When Sicily rose against her Bourbon tyrant in 
1847, and again in January, 1848, she claimed her 
right to the constitution of 1812, guaranteed by Eng- 
land, and annulled almost as soon as granted, by the 
vile, faithless court of Naples. That constitution re- 
cognised the union of Naples and Sicily ; but the lat- 
ter, in the intoxication of victory, annulled the union ; 
Sicily was declared independent, and the crown was 
offered on the 10th of July to the Duke of Genoa, son 
of the King of Sardinia. The counsels of Lord Minto, 
who was then on a political mission in Italy, contri- 
buted not a little in determining this event. The Sici- 
lians being about to choose their form of government, 
he advised them to adopt the monarchical rather than 
the republican, and to select an Italian prince for their 



SICILY AND HER ALLIES. 153 

king ; at the same time he signified, in the name of his 
government, that it would acknowledge any sovereign 
whom the Sicilians might choose when he was in actual 
possession of the throne. The offer made to the Duke . 
of Genoa was not accepted, for Charles Albert was 
afraid of involving himself in fresh entanglements ; and 
the throne of Sicily remained vacant. But the vacancy 
was never acknowledged by the King of Naples, who 
always regarded himself as the legitimate sovereign of 
the island, and prepared to regain his rights by force 
of arms. 

The Neapolitan expedition set sail on the 29th of Au- 
gust. It consisted of two frigates and twenty steamers, 
carrying altogether 14,000 men. On the 31st it an- 
chored off Reggio, south of Messina, and the news of its 
arrival reached Palermo the same day, and would seem to 
have taken the Sicilian government by surprise; not 
that the preparations in which the King of Naples had 
been engaged for some months had been a secret for 
any one ; but the Sicilians had rested secure m the 
belief that the French and English admirals would in 
no case allow the Neapolitan vessels to pass out of the 
Bay of Naples. They did allow them, however ; and, 
in the plenitude of their courtesy, they even permitted 
the King's fleet to bombard Messina ; but when that 
ruthless deed of vengeance had been executed, and not 
until then, the French and English admirals did inter- 
fere, and put a stop to all further hostilities. Why did 
they not do so sooner ? Their intervention would 
have been no less effectual ; and, if justifiable at all, it 
was as much so before the bombardment as after it. 
The only explanation offered for this mystery rests upon 
the supersubtle diplomatic quibble, that there was no 
intervention in the ordinary sense of the word in this 
case, for the armistice " was not imposed on the Nea- 
politan government," although it is owned that " it was 
called for in a most pressing manner, and in a way tQ 
l* 



154 ITALY. 

admit of no refusal." The King of Naples did not 
understand this nice distinction, for he protested vehe- 
mently against the coercion put upon him ; the Sicilians 
showed themselves no better adepts at hair-splitting : 
and we cannot blame them if they generally expressed 
in very strong terms their disgust at the paltering con- 
duct of their two allies by which they had been so 
disastrously beguiled. 

The unexpected arrival of the Neapolitan armament 
before Messina, instead of striking terror into the Sici- 
lians, stirred all their energies into convulsive activity, 
and excited to the highest degree their hatred of Naples, 
and all that belonged to it. The Minister for Foreign 
Affairs said to the assembled parliament, on laying be- 
fore it his despatches from Messina, " Gentlemen, we 
bring you good news." The whole house, members, 
strangers and all, instantly responded with shouts of 
joy ; and then the Chamber, with a dignity worthy of 
the Roman senate, passed disdainfully to the order 
of the day. At night Palermo was brilliantly illumi- 
nated, and the people went about hurrahing for the 
good news, singing warlike and patriotic songs, and 
heaping curses and abuses on. King Bomba (one 
of their countless nicknames for Ferdinand). The 
Government instantly put in vigorous operation the 
measures most necessary for the defence of the country. 
The National Guard had been organized and partially 
armed in the course of the summer ; it was now mobi- 
lized, that is, made liable to serve in any part of the 
island ; and it was decreed that lists should be opened 
for the enrolment of volunteers, and that seven camps 
should be formed at Milazzo, Taormina, Catania, Syra- 
cuse, Girgenti, Trapani, and Palermo. The Minister 
of War was appointed commander-in-chief; an extra- 
ordinary commission was nominated to go into the 
provinces and summon the people to arms ; all the 
horses and mules were put in requisition ; and, as a 



BOMBARDMENT OF MESSINA. 155 

temporary expedient for defraying the first expenses, a 
loan was to be raised on the plate of the churches and 
convents. 

Meanwhile the telegraph announced the bombard- 
ment of Messina. Having been repulsed with con- 
siderable loss in a first attempt to land at Mare Grosso, 
the Neapolitans kept up a steady fire for four days, not 
on the forts occupied by the Messinese, but on the 
town itself; and bombs and rockets were discharged 
upon it from the citadel, the only point which had 
remained in the power of the King of Naples. Mes- 
sina is open towards the sea ; the citizens fought with 
great bravery, but they were ill-armed and ill-com- 
manded, and the regular garrison was weak ; so that, 
as the Neapolitan army was four times more numerous, 
it might have taken the city at the point of the 
bayonet without any very extraordinary effort. The 
four days' bombardment, therefore, was an act of wilful, 
brutal cruelty, opposed to all the laws of civilized war- 
fare. When the Neapolitans landed on the beach of 
La Oontessa, the suburb of that name, all the houses 
along the road from the sea to the gates of Messina, 
and a large portion of the beautiful city itself, had 
ceased to exist. A few Messinese sold their lives 
dearly behind the smoking ruins of their homes ; 5000 
families had fled to the mountains, and thousands of 
women, children, and wounded, sought protection in 
the three French and English vessels* in the roads. It 
is not surprising that after such inhuman and disloyal 
treatment, the Messinese should have cruelly retaliated 
upon the prisoners who fell into their hands : it is not 
true, however, that they roasted and ate them, as the 
Neapolitan journals alleged. At any rate, the con- 
querors were not backward in making reprisals upon 
the defenceless inhabitants of the sacked city. 

A victory so dearly won was enough to make 
General Filangieri think seriously of the resistance he 



156 ITALY. 

was likely to encounter in the prosecution of his expe- 
dition : he, therefore, issued a proclamation offering a 
general amnesty, suspension of the tax on grist, and 
the erection of Messina into a free port. These con- 
cessions were intended as preliminaries to his march on 
Catania and Syracuse ; but throughout all Sicily an 
explosion of rage had ensued upon the news of the 
catastrophe that had befallen Messina. Lanzerotte, the 
commandant of Syracuse, being suspected of cowardice 
or treachery, was seized by the populace and torn to 
pieces ; and the same fate would infallibly have 
happened to any man who talked of submission. In 
Palermo, the Government durst not, if it would, have 
shown the least hesitation ; the word treachery, once 
uttered amongst the people, would have been a death 
sentence for the most popular leaders. There was no 
alternative but to proclaim war to the death, and to 
push forward with the utmost energy the preparations for 
a desperate resistance. The Government being short 
of funds, provisionally suspended the payment of the 
notes called bank policies, a measure which painfully 
affected a great number of the humbler classes, and 
which would, on any other occasion, have produced 
the worst effects. Vito d'Ondes Reggio, the Minister 
of the Interior, left Palermo to * arrange a line of de- 
fence in the eastern part of the island ; and 20,000 
pikes were prepared to supply the want of muskets. 
The peasants flo<*ked from all parts of the country to 
Palermo; and from the mountains of Alcamo and 
Corleone came 8000 swarthy-visaged descendants of 
the Moors, in their picturesque garbs, each man with a 
carbine slung over his stout shoulder. 

But beneath this bold and martial bearing lurked 
many serious anxieties. The Government, even whilst 
it declared that the Sicilian nation would perish to the 
last man rather than submit or enter into any com- 
promise with Naples, clearly foresaw that the ruin of 



ARMISTICE BETWEEN NAPLES AND SICILY. 157 

all the ports in the island was inevitable, and that the 
only hope of resisting oppression lay in abandoning 
the whole seaboard, and retiring into the mountains. 
The people loudly vented their indignation against the 
inertness of their two allies, and the whole press echoed 
the popular cry ; but a favorable change was produced 
in the public mind by the arrival of the French packet 
Hellespont, and the English corvette Sid on, the former 
freighted with 2000 muskets and 400 barrels of pow- 
der, consigned to the Sicilian Government, and the latter 
bringing news of an agreement for an armistice provi- 
sionally concluded on the 11th of September, between 
Captain Nonay of the French ship Hercule and Captain 
Robb of her Majesty's ship Gladiator, on the one part, 
and General Filangieri on the other. 

Protected by the English and French fleets, the 
armistice was respected by both belligerents, and the 
island enjoyed perfect tranquillity during the remainder 
of the year. Meanwhile the Sicilians were prevailed 
on by their friends to abate something of their preten- 
sions, and consent to treat with Naples for a settlement 
of their quarrel on the basis of the Constitution of 
1812. The rights of his crown being no longer con- 
tested, King Ferdinand accepted, but with undisguised 
repugnance, the mediation of France and England. 
The negotiations proceeded very slowly, and just be- 
fore the close of the year they took a sudden and 
inauspicious turn. The King, who had apparently 
acquiesced in most of the propositions submitted to 
him by the representatives of the mediating powers, 
took his stand very decidedly against the proposed 
establishment of a Sicilian army, and insisted on pre- 
serving the existing amalgamation of the Neapolitan 
and Sicilian forces. At the same time he transferred 
the conduct of the negotiations from his foreign minis- 
ter to his military commander ; announced that Spain, 
whose reigning family has a reversionary interest in the 



158 ITALY. 

Neapolitan succession, demanded to take part in the 
intervention ; and that he had also invited the co-ope- 
ration of Russia and Austria as parties to the treaties 
of 1815. 

The whole question was thus reopened, and the 
prospect of an amicable settlement became- more doubt- 
ful than ever. 

The changes of ministry in Sardinia and Tuscany 
were effected by violence and insurrection, but cost no 
bloodshed. In Rome the new policy was initiated by 
the murder of the premier, Count Rossi. The deed 
appears to have been unpremeditated ; though prompted 
by political feeling, it was not the act of a party, but of 
an individual. Unfortunately for the honor of the 
Romans, there were too many among them who made 
themselves accessories after the fact, by their ostenta- 
tious applause of the murderer. Groups - of mingled 
soldiers and citizens, with lighted torches, were heard 
singing in chorus along the streets : — 

" Benedetto quella mano 
Che il tiranno pugnato" 

[Blessed that hand which smote the tyrant] ; a trans- 
lation of the Greek ditty about Harmodius and Aristo- 
giton. 

On the 1 5th of November, the Chamber of Deputies 
was to open at one o'clock, and a large crowd was 
consequently assembled round the gateway of the Pa- 
lazzo della Cancellaria. When Rossi appeared they 
hissed and hooted ; the haughty count confronted them 
with an expression of scorn and contempt, whereupon 
a man rushed forward and plunged a dagger in his 
neck. The dying man was taken up to the rooms 
occupied by Cardinal Guzzoli, and in five minutes 
expired. 

M. Rossi will be better remembered for his untimely 



CHARACTER OF COUNT ROSSI. 159 

death than for any public achievements of his political 
career, though he exercised a commanding influence 
over many of the more conspicuous actors in the history 
of the last forty years. Born at Carrara, in 1*787, he 
became an advocate and professor of laws in the Uni- 
versity of Bologna as early as 1809. In 1815 he acted 
as civil commissioner during the occupation of the Le- 
gations by Murat, and was in consequence proscribed. 
He escaped to Geneva, where the rights of a citizen 
were conferred on him in time to rescue him from the 
persecution of the Austrian Government. He occupied 
for nearly twenty years the chair of Roman Law in the 
Academy of Geneva, until he was ejected from his 
professorship, along with his six colleagues, by the 
present government of that republic. At the invitation 
of M. Guizot, he removed to Paris, where a chair of 
Constitutional Law was at once placed at his disposal ; 
and upon his naturalization in France he rose to fill 
several important offices, and was eventually called to 
the Chamber of Peers. Although he never held a 
ministerial office in France, he lived in the closest inti- 
macy with the Government, and enjoyed the unreserved 
confidence of the King. This circumstance caused him 
to be selected for the important post of French ambas- 
sador at Rome ; and after an absence of thirty years he 
returned to his native country as the plenipotentiary of 
a foreign sovereign. In that capacity he probably Con- 
tributed in a remarkable degree to place Pio Nono on 
the papal throne. 

From this biographical sketch, borrowed with some 
compression from a very laudatory article in " The 
Times," it may easily be inferred that Rossi was not 
the man whose ministry could inspire the Roman 
people with any degree of confidence. The confiden- 
tial friend and counsellor of Guizot and Louis Philippe 
could not be a hearty friend of popular power ; he was 
a bureaucrat of their school, and his ability and auda- 



160 ITALY. 

city only rendered him the more offensive to the nation, 
as an incarnation of the reactionary spirit, and the more 
dangerous to the sovereign who employed him. The 
unfortunate man was greedy of unpopularity, and his 
demeanor was insufferably haughty; for example, — 
Prince Barberini having been named member of a com- 
mission created by Rossi, conceived himself obliged to 
go and thank him for it. He was no sooner announced 
from the antechamber than the minister said, " Give 
me the Gazette," and began to read it. After some 
time the servant returned to inform him that Prince 
Barberini wished to speak with him. " I am now 
reading the Gazette," replied he ; " when I have finished 
the prince may enter." The prince was kept in the 
antechamber accordingly, and an hour passed before 
he obtained an audience. 

The death of Rossi was the signal for an insurrection 
for which Rome was already predisposed. 

At half-past ten a.m. on the 16th, a gathering began 
in the great Piazza del Popolo, and symptoms of a me- 
nacing character were perceptible in the leading streets. 
The Civic Guards and troops of the line, in fragmentary 
sections, mingled with the people ; and the Carabineers, 
whose uniform had hitherto been invariably arrayed 
against the populace, were now for the first time seen 
to fraternize with the mob. From the terrace of the 
Pincian Hill the spectator could count nearly 20,000 
Romans, in threatening groups, and mostly armed. 
Printed papers were handed eagerly about, all having 
the same purport, and containing the following " Fun- 
damental Points : ] . Promulgation and full adoption 
of Italian nationality. 2. Convocation of a Constituent 
Assembly and realization of the Federal Pact. 3. Re- 
alization of the vote for the war of independence given 
in the Chamber of Deputies. 4. Adoption, in its inte- 
grity, of the Programme Mamiani, 5th June. 5. 
Ministers who have public confidence — Mamiani, Ster- 



INSURRECTION IN ROME. 161 

bini, Cambello, Saliceti, Fusconi, Lunati, Sereni, Gal- 
letti." 

Their ostensible object was to proceed to the Cham- 
ber of Deputies and present these five points in a con- 
stitutional manner. But the chiefs, finding themselves 
in such unlooked-for force of numbers* and many of the 
Deputies being found mixed up with the crowd, the 
cry was raised to march to the Pope's palace. It was 
now one o'clock. The members of the Chamber pre- 
sented themselves as the mouthpiece of the multitude, 
and transmitted the five points to the Sovereign. In 
about ten minutes, the President of the late Ministerial 
Council, Cardinal Soglia, came forth from the private 
apartment, and informed the deputation that his Holi- 
ness would reflect on the subject and take it into his 
best consideration. This message was deemed unsa- 
tisfactory, and a personal audience was insisted on fo* 
the deputation. An audience was granted ; Galletti, 
the former Police Minister (and strange to say for such 
a functionary, the most popular man in Rome) appeared 
on the balcony, and stated, that the Pope u would not 
brook dictation." Matters grew critical. The Swiss 
Guard was resolute, but it numbered no more than 
some two dozen men : escape or defence was equally 
difficult. Suddenly, one of the advanced sentinels was 
seized by the mob, and disarmed. The Guard in- 
stantly flung back, closed, and barred the palace-gates, 
and presented then arms at the mass of the besiegers. 
The die was now cast. From the back streets men 
emerged, bearing aloft long ladders wherewith to scale 
the pontifical abode ; carts and wagons were dragged 
up and ranged within musket-shot of the windows, to 
protect the assailants in their determined attack on the 
palace ; the cry was, " To arms ! To arms !" and mus- 
.ketry began to bristle in the approaches from every 
direction. Fagots were produced and piled up against 
one of the condemned gates of the building, to which 



162 ITALY. 

the mob was in the act of setting fire, when a brisk 
discharge of firelocks scattered the besiegers in that 
quarter. 

The drums were now beating throughout the city, 
and groups of regular troops and carabineers reinforced 
the assailants. Random shots were aimed at the 
windows and responded to. The outposts, one after 
another, were taken by the people, the garrison within 
being too scanty to man the outworks. The belfry of 
St. Carlino, which commands the palace, was occupied. 
From behind the equestrian statues of Castor and 
Pollux a group of sharpshooters plied their rifles; and 
at about four o'clock, Monsignor Palma, private secre- 
tary to his Holiness, was killed by a bullet. Two six- 
pounders were drawn up and pointed at the gates ; but 
a truce was demanded, and a deputation again entered 
tjie palace bearing " the people's ultimatum," which was 
a simple repetition of the "fundamental points" cited 
above. If those terms were not granted, the palace 
was to be stormed, and every soul in it put to the 
sword, " with the sole exception of his Holiness himself." 
Pius no longer hesitated, but sent for Galletti, with 
whom he remained in conference from six .till nearly 
seven, when the following new Ministry was formally 
proclaimed to the people : — Foreign Affairs, Mamiani ; 
Home and Police, Galletti ; Finance, Lunati ; Com- 
merce and Public Works, Sterbini ; War Minister, 
Cambello; Public Instruction and President of the 
Council, Rosmim. The last name is the only one 
which the Pope had selected himself: the others were 
all named by the people. Sterbini is the leading writer 
in the " Contemporaneo." The Abbe Count Rosmini 
declined the task proposed to him by the Pope's 
selection, and was replaced by Monsignor Carlo Muz- 
zarelli, a popular and enlightened prelato. 

On receiving intelligence of these events, the English 
Admiral sent a steamer to Civita Vecchia to receive 



the pope's flight. 163 

the Pope, should he be a fugitive ; and the French 
Government hastily despatched three steam frigates, 
with a force of 3500 men, to protect the Pontiff. He 
does not appear, however, to have been exposed to any 
personal danger ; but being resolved not to give even 
the implied sanction of his presence to the ministry 
imposed upon him by the populace, he committed the 
fatal imprudence of quitting his dominions as a fugitive. 
His flight was the signal for the dispersion of his cardi- 
nals. The veteran, Lambruschini, escaped in the 
uniform of a dragoon ; whilst Pius evaded in the less 
appropriate guise of a servant to the Bavarian ambas- 
sador, and, crossing the frontier, arrived at Gaeta, 
where the King of Naples received him with worship- 
ful homage. 

Deputations were sent by the Roman ministry to 
solicit the Pope's return ; but they were not even 
allowed to cross the Neapolitan frontier. As the Pontiff 
persisted in declaring the ministry to be illegal, and all 
its acts null and void, an act was passed by both 
Chambers, provisionally depriving the Pope of temporal 
power, and decreeing the election of a " Provisional 
Supreme Junta," for the purpose of carrying on the 
government. The act states, that " The Commission 
shall discontinue its functions on the return of the 
Sovereign Pontiff, or when he shall himself appoint, 
according to constitutional forms, a substitute of his 
own selection." Neither of these conditions being ful- 
filled, an act was passed, at the instance of the Junta, 
and in compliance with the demands of the people, 
convoking a Constituent Assembly for the Roman 
States. The Chambers were then dissolved on the 
29 th of December. 

• At sunset that evening, the Castle of St. Angelo, by 
the consecutive discharge of 101 great guns, announced 
to this metropolis and the world in general, that the 
dynasty which had reigned over Rome for 1048 years 



164 ITALY. 

had come to a close, and a new government was to be 
called into being by the mandate of the whole population 
assembled in a constituent representative body by uni- 
versal suffrage. The great bell of the Capitol, which only 
tolls for the death of a Pope, pealed solemnly. It was 
exactly on the 24th November (the fatal night of the 
flight of Pio Nono), that, in the year of our Lord 800, 
Charlemagne arrived in Rome to be crowned on 
Christmas day of that year by Leo III., and to institute 
and formally corroborate the donation of Pepin by the 
erection of the Papal sovereignty. 



GERMANY. 165 



CHAPTER VIII. 
GERMANY. 

ALL THE STATES REVOLUTIONIZED THE CENTRAL PARLIAMENT 

OF GERMANY CREATED — INSTALLATION OF THE REGENCY. 

The shock of the February revolution threw all 
Germany into commotion, and although it awoke 
there but little imitative sympathy with France, it 
yet gave an irresistible impulse to the long-slighted 
claims of the German people. The time was now 
come when the promises made by the German sove- 
reigns, in the season of their distress, could no longer 
be evaded. The German people asked for no more. 
The chief points they insisted on were, — A new civil 
and criminal code for all Germany, ratifying, among 
other things, freedom of the press ; trial by jury, and 
publicity in all judicial proceedings ; representative 
government in the several States, with the right of 
voting taxes vested in the people alone ; civic equal- 
ity without distinction of creed ; and lastly, that the 
people, as well as the princes, should be represented in 
the Council of the German Confederation. These de- 
mands were the very same which had been constantly 
preferred by the Liberal party for three-and-thirty 
years, and rejected and punished by the princes, with 
more or less despotic harshness : they were now ex- 
torted, with more or less violence, in the space of 
three weeks, from every sovereign in Germany. The 
$rst act of submission was made by the King of 



166 GERMANY. 

Wurtemberg, on the 3d of March, and the example 
was followed by his brother sovereigns in rapid suc- 
cession ; those of Bavaria and Hesse Darmstadt abdi- 
cated, after they had complied with the demands of 
their subjects. On the 13th the old system perished 
in its metropolis, Vienna, after a street tumult (for it 
was not a fight) of three or four hours ; and on the 
18th the new order of things was established in 
Berlin, and consecrated by a lavish and gratuitous 
outpouring of blood. 

The Kins: of Saxonv insisted on retaining the Cen- 
to . o 

sorship of the press, and would not hear of any " in- 
sensate projects " for the security of his subjects' 
rights. His subjects, however, persisted in their de- 
mands ; the King was " moved to tears," but not to 
compliance ; on the contrary, he called out his troops, 
but they refused to act against the people, and the 
King was constrained to grant everything. 

King Ernest of Hanover, of course, began by re- 
fusing all concessions. When farther pressed, he 
talked of abdicating ; but finding his beloved Hano- 
verians quite unmoved by that threat, he resigned 
himself to his fate, and even submitted to the mortifi- 
cation of receiving Sttibe as one of his ministers — a 
man who had spent many years in prison for his re- 
sistance to King Ernest's illegal and tyrannical acts. 

A dramatic scene, recorded in a letter from Olden- 
burg, is curious and significant. A deputation, headed 
by Baron von Thanne, one of the wealthiest landed 
proprietors in the duchy, waited on the Grand Duke 
on the 10 th of March, with a petition for a represent- 
ative government, and other constitutional grants. 
The Baron made a speech, in which he expounded 
the object of the petition in very forcible terms. The 
Duke, unaccustomed to such language, interrupted 
the speaker, saying, " Sir, do you mean to threaten 
me ?" " Such is not my intention, prince L" replied 



REVOLUTIONS OF MARCH. VIENNA. 167 

Von Thanne ; " we merely express wishes, but they 
are the unanimous wishes of the people." " You de- 
mand a constitution," observed the Duke : " that is 
a very difficult matter, requiring much time and long 
meditation ; and, moreover, at a moment like this, we 
should not be in too great a hurry." " Allow me," 
said Von Thanne, " to remind your highness, that you 
made me precisely the same reply seventeen years ago, 
in 1830, when I had the honor to claim in the name 
of the people a similar concession !" 

The King of Bavaria's abdication ought, for the ho- 
nor of royalty, to have taken place sooner. On the 
19th of February very serious riots, threatening to end 
in the King's deposition, were caused in Munich 
by one of the insolent freaks of Louis's mistress, Lola 
Montez, whom he had created Countess of Lansfeldt. 
Lola was obliged to quit the city. Having returned 
to it on the 9th of March, she was again removed by 
the police, and the King was compelled to annul the 
letters of naturalization he had conferred on her, and 
with them her right to the estate from which she de- 
rived her title. But the sacrifice was too painful to 
the infatuated old monarch : and his abdication fol- 
lowed within a week after the decree extorted from 
him against his fascinating mistress. 

The revolution in Vienna began on the occasion 
of the opening of the Diet for Lower Austria. The 
business of the day had not proceeded more than 
half an hour, when it was interrupted by a mass of 
people, who forced their way into the hall, clamoring 
for reform. Count Montecuculi, marshal of the Diet, 
immediately went to the palace, followed by a crowd 
of people, to present a petition to the Emperor, pray- 
ing the same reforms as had been granted in other 
parts of Germany. The Archduke Ludwig, chief of 
the Home Department, informed the Count that there 
was no disposition to make concessions. A cabinet 



168 GERMANY. 

council, however, was summoned, and the Marshal of 
the Diet and those who accompanied him waited 
in vain for its determination, from twelve to four 
o'clock. The people became exasperated by this de- 
lay ; the students harangued them, the tumult con- 
tinually increased. Suddenly the troops appeared and 
fired upon the unarmed multitude, killing and wound- 
ing a great number. Four pieces of cannon were 
planted on St. Stephen's Platz, and the gunners stood 
by them with lighted matches. Meanwhile the alarum- 
drum was beaten ; the Burgher Guard appeared 
in arms, and were received by the populace with loud 
acclamations ; but all further conflict was prevented 
by the announcement that Prince Metternich had re- 
signed, that the Emperor had acceded to the popu- 
lar demands, and had confided the city to the keeping 
of the students and the burghers. A new ministry 
was formed under the Presidency of Count Kolow- 
rath, and various measures of grace were announced 
in rapid succession. An amnesty was declared in fa- 
vor of all political prisoners in Galicia and the Lorn- 
bardo-Venetian kingdom. One hundred and fifty 
Polish and Italian prisoners were dismissed from the 
fortress of Spielberg, infamous in the annals of Aus- 
trian despotism. The Secret Court of Police was 
abolished, and a letter was published from the minis- 
ter, Baron Pillersdorf, to the police officers of all the 
Austrian provinces, in which he tells them that a great 
many of their former functions are now illegal. They 
are forbidden to. employ spies, " since the free press 
will not fail to reveal dangerous conspiracies and plots, 
if any exist." Liberty of the person and a kind of 
habeas corpus are officially proclaimed in this letter. 

The constitution proclaimed on the 25th of April 
completed the first stage of the Austrian Revolution. 
According to this scheme, afterwards abrogated by 
another revolutionary movement, the Imperial Parlia- 



REVOLUTIONS OF MARCH. BERLIN. 169 

• 

ment was to consist of two houses. The Upper House 
was to comprise about two hundred members, one-fifth 
of whom were to be nominated by the Emperor. The 
heads of princely houses were to have seats in this 
assembly; and the rest of its members were to be 
elected by landed proprietors paying 1000 florins and 
upwards of annual taxes. The Lower House was to be 
constituted on the broadest democratic basis. Every 
man was to have a vote and be eligible as a representa- 
tive. The number of members was to be about four 
hundred. 

The first steps of Prussia in the way of reform were 
made unnecessarily painful, through the vacillation of 
her grandiloquent and weak-souled monarch. On the 
6th of March he closed the sittings of the modern- 
antique Diet he had called into existence the year 
before, and he promised that it should thenceforth meet 
periodically ; as if such an institution was sufficient for 
the political wants of the Prussian people ! Meanwhile 
the citizens of every town in the Rhenish provinces had 
broken out with cries for the largest reforms. Their 
demands -were echoed by Breslau, Konigsburg, and 
Berlin. A great open-air meeting, held on the 13th 
of March in the capital, to petition for reform, ended in 
a tumult, in which the troops acted with great violence. 
For nearly a week Berlin was a continued scene of dire 
disorder. On the 15th, though the people offered little 
more than passive resistance, ten persons were killed 
and upwards of a hundred were wounded by the mili- 
tary. While such was the state of the capital, sangui- 
nary riots were taking place also in Breslau and Konigs- 
burg. On the morning of the 18th, a deputation 
arrived in Berlin from Cologne, and at once waited on 
the King and presented a petition for reform. Frederick 
William having promised to accede to their demands, 
they replied, " We have been so often deceived and put 
off, that we cannot wait any longer ; we must insist on 
8 



170 GERMANY. 

a proclamation being issued at once, or your majesty 
will cease to reign over the Rhenish provinces." The 
King was much hurt, but after some parley submitted. 
Threatened, on the one hand, with the loss of a part of 
his dominions ; on the other hand flattered by the 
prospect of an Imperial crown suddenly dawning upon 
him, he forthwith published a proclamation of which 
we subjoin the most important portion : — 

" We, Frederick William, by the grace of God, <fec. 
When, on the 14th instant, we convoked our faithful 
States for the 27th of April next, to determine with 
them on the measures for the regeneration of Germany, 
which we wished to propose to our allies of the Ger- 
manic Confederation, and which are so necessary for 
Prussia, we could not suppose what great events were 
at the same moment occurring in Vienna, to facilitate 
essentially, on the one hand, the execution of our pro- 
jects, and, on the other, to render a hastening of their 
execution indispensable. Now, in consequence of these 
important events, we feel bound to declare before all 
things, not only in presence of Prussia, but in presence 
of Germany (if such be the will of God), and before the 
whole united nation, what propositions we have resolved 
to make to our German confederates. Above all, we 
demand that Germany be transformed from a Confede- 
ration of States into a Federal State. We acknowledge 
that this plan presupposes a re-organization of the 
federal constitution, which cannot be carried into exe- 
cution except by a union of princes with the people, 
and that consequently a temporary federal representa- 
tion must be formed out of the Chambers of all the 
German States and convoked immediately. We admit 
that such a federal representation imperatively demands 
constitutional institutions in all German States, in order 
that the members of that representation may sit beside 
each other on terms of equality. We demand a general 
military system of defence for Germany, and we will 



REVOLUTIONS OF MARCH. BERLIN. 171 

endeavor to form it after that model under which our 
Prussian armies reaped such unfading laurels in the 
liberation war. We demand that the German federal 
army be assembled under one single federal banner, 
and we hope to see a federal commander-in-chief at its 
head. We demand a German federal flag ; and we 
expect that, at a period not far remote, a German fleet 
will cause the German name to be respected both on 
neighboring and far-distant seas. We demand a Ger- 
man federal tribunal for the settlement of all political 
differences between princes and their States, as well as 
those arising between the different German Govern- 
ments. We demand a common law of settlement for 
all Germany, and an entire right for all Germans to 
change their abode in every part of our German father- 
land. 

" We demand that, in future, no barriers of custom- 
houses shall impede traffic upon German soil, and 
cripple the industry of its inhabitants. We demand, 
therefore, a general German union of customs (Zollve- 
rein), in which the same weights and measures, the 
same coinage, and the same German laws of commerce, 
will soon draw closer and closer the bond of material 
union. We propose the liberty of the press throughout 
Germany, with the same general guarantees against its 
abuse." 

The last paragraph fixes the convocation of the 
United Diet for the 2d of April. 

The first thought that will occur to most men on 
reading this document will be, — Why was it delayed 
so long ? Is it possible that an hour can have pos- 
sessed the mind of the royal writer with projects so 
vast as are here suggested, and with convictions so 
strong as seem implied in every line of the proclama- 
tion ? Be that as it may, the delight with which the 
people of Berlin received their King's manifesto was 
unbounded ; an immense crowd, comprising persons 



172 GERMANY. 

of all classes, repaired to the palace to express their 
gratitude. At two o'clock his majesty appeared at a 
window, and was received with tremendous cheers. 
Unfortunately, two regiments of dragoons, stationed in 
the inner court of the palace, on hearing the shouts, 
supposed that the populace were making an attack ; 
defiling, therefore, at a slow pace through the gateway, 
they formed in line, and began to force the people 
back by bearing on the mass with the chests of their 
horses. At thi.s moment two shots were fired from a 
body of infantry ; the discharge was accidental, and no 
one was wounded, but the consequences were not the 
less disastrous. The people, imagining that a most 
treacherous design had been formed to massacre them, 
immediately rushed to arms. Barricades were thrown 
up in every street, and riflemen took post at windows 
and on house-tops, whence they fired upon the soldiery. 
The latter were by no means reluctant to engage in 
the fray ; on the contrary, they were animated by the 
scorn "and hatred which the garrison of Berlin has 
always professed for the bourgeoisie, and they were 
further incensed by what they considered the unfair 
fighting of their opponents. - They looked on the 
fighters from the windows and house-tops as assassins, 
and gave them no quarter ; several corner-houses 
from which the firing was particularly sharp, were 
taken, and every one within was put to death. 
Twelve were thus killed in a house in the Fre- 
dericks strasse, among them a young Pole, who 
frantically begged the lieutenant to spare his life ; but 
it was impossible to control the rage of the soldiers : in 
another house, a cafe, eight men were bayoneted in 
the billiard-room. The people, on the other hand, 
fought with no less valor and determination, and for 
nearly fifteen hours the fight raged with undiminished 
fury. The firing, which began soon after two p. m. on 
the 18th, ceased at five in the morning of the 19th, 



REVOLUTIONS OF MARCH. BERLIN. 173 

the King voluntarily desisting from the contest without 
having been actually defeated. He felt, no doubt, that 
even a victory won after a further continuance of so 
horrid a strife, might be fatal to his tenure of the 
crown. 

At seven o'clock on the morning of the 19th, there 
was published an address to the inhabitants of Berlin 
by the King, assuring them that the conflict between 
the people and the soldiery was purely the result of an 
unfortunate misunderstanding, and entreating mutual 
forgiveness and oblivion of the past on both sides. 
The good-natured Berliners responded with alacrity to 
this appeal, and again they thronged to the palace to 
ratify the compact proposed to them by their King. 
At eleven o'clock Frederick William appeared on a 
balcony, and was received with a cordiality that was 
certainly surprising under such circumstances ; he 
afterwards went down into the square, declared his 
consent to the arming of the people, confided himself 
to their safeguard, and as a procession passed him 
bearing the bodies of some of the dead and wounded, 
he uncovered his head, and uttered words of the deep- 
est regret and respect for the fallen. A general 
amnesty was announced ; the military were sent out 
of the town ; orders were given for the immediate 
formation of a Burgher Guard, in which the students 
of the university were to be incorporated ; and a new 
ministry of a very liberal character was appointed, 
including Dr. Bornemann and Dr. Camphausen, repre- 
sentatives of the middle class, whose talents and elo- 
quence had been conspicuous in the Diet of the pre- 
ceding year. 

To the honor of the Berliners it deserves to be 
recorded, that from the moment the fight had ceased 
they exhibited no spirit of revenge ; they even praised 
the bravery of the troops, and cheered them as they 
left the town with flying colors and the music of their 



174 GERMANY. 

military bands. Even in the heat of the conflict but 
few acts of wilful injury to private property were com- 
mitted. The Royal Foundry and the Artillery barracks 
were reduced to ashes ; the furniture of Major Preiss, 
who was believed to have given orders to tire on the 
unoffending people, was burned, and the house of the 
Director of Taxes, and the shop of a glover who had 
given up some Polish students to the soldiers, were 
both pillaged. No other acts of violence of this kind 
were committed, and the words, " Respect for the pro- 
perty of the citizens," were everywhere written by the 
insurgents themselves on the doors of the houses and 
shops. The popular feeling was very strong against 
the Prince of Prussia, and his palace would inevitably 
have been demolished, had it not been protected by 
the talismanic inscription, " National Property." The 
Prince was believed, — we know not on what evidence, 
— to have counselled the King against making any 
concessions to the wishes of the nation, and to have 
made use of very virulent expressions against the 
people whilst the conflict was pending. To allay the 
irritation caused by the Prince's presence, it was re- 
solved that he should quit Prussia with all speed, 
under pretext of a secret mission to the Queen of. 
England.* 

The number of those who fell in the deplorable conflict 

* As in Paris, so also in Berlin, comic incidents were not 
wanting to vary the horrors of a day and night of slaughter. 
An English writer says : " In one of the barricades carried and 
cleared away by the troops, the kernel of the mass of beams, 
casks, furniture, and paling flung hastily together, was found 
to be a cab with the unfortunate 'fare' still in it. It had 
been stopped and covered up before he could get out. As soon 
as it was dragged forth, he put his head to the window and 
politely begged the door might be opened, as calmly as if he 
had just driven up in the ordinary course of things. He will, 
doubtless, figure in Berlin history as an Englishman, for we 
have a universal reputation for taking things coolly." 



REVOLUTIONS OF MARCH. BERLIN. 175 

of tlie 18th of March was very considerable, but much, 
less than at first it was made to appear by various cir- 
cumstantial reports, put forth with great pretensions to 
accuracy. On the popular side the slain may have 
been about 200, of whom 187 received a public funeral ; 
as to the wounded, we have not been able to discover 
any authentic account of their numbers. By an official 
list of the loss sustained by the military, it appears that 
those slain on the 1 8th, or who afterwards died of their 
wounds received that day, were 3 commissioned and 
17 non-commissioned officers and privates; the list of 
wounded includes 14 commissioned officers, 14 non- 
commissioned, 225 rank and file, and 1 surgeon. It 
has been pretended that the losses of the military were 
studiously concealed, and that great numbers of their 
dead were conveyed by night to the fortress of Spandau, 
and there secretly buried; but a story so glaringly 
improbable cannot be admitted in face of the document 
of which we have given the above abstract. The official 
list gives the name, birth-place, regiment, and battalion 
of every killed and wounded officer and soldier, so that 
any suppression of the truth would be liable to imme- 
diate detection. There is no doubt, therefore, that the 
above is an exact statement of the loss up to the 12 th 
of April. 

Frederick William's position after the 1 8th and 1 9th 
of March was that of a sovereign who had virtually 
lost a battle against his own subjects, and who was 
forced to behold the people more masters of his capital 
than he was himself. Not all the floods of his senti- 
mental and vainglorious rhetoric could conceal that 
glaring fact. One means, however, presented itself to 
him by which he might retrieve his lost dignity in the 
eyes of Europe, and he seized it with a dexterity which 
would have been admirable- but for the fault, common 
to almost all his majesty's boldest acts, of coming just 
after the opportunity had gone by. On the 21st he 



176 GERMANY. 

issued a proclamation, reiterating in still more forcible 
and explicit terms his declaration that he would head 
the grand movement for the regeneration of Germany ; 
and thus, instead of allowing the minds of his subjects 
to dwell on old grievances, he turned, for a while, the 
whole torrent of popular excitement to new hopes, and 
questions of larger import, in winch it appeared to the 
Prussians that they and their sovereign must act to- 
gether. 

On the same day the King rode in state through the 
streets of Berlin. The black and white cockade of 
Prussia had been stained with blood ; but forthwith his 
Majesty reappeared with the Imperial colors on his 
helmet ; that same ancient German tricolor proscribed 
at the universities, and which waved over the people's 
barricades at Berlin, was now the hopeful emblem of 
the Imperial power of united Germany. Immense was 
the enthusiasm with which the King was everywhere 
greeted by the dense masses, through which his horse 
could hardly move. " Long live the Emperor of Ger- 
many !" cried a voice. " Not so," replied Frederick 
William ; " that is not my wish — that is not my inten- 
tion ;" a denial which, we must suppose, meant no more 
than nolo episcopari. The King of Prussia, seizing the 
leadership of Germany as soon as Austria seemed dis- 
abled from contending with him for its possession, was 
not likely to build up a German empire in order to give 
himself a master. But his intentions, whatever they 
were, came to naught ; for already the people of Ger- 
many had themselves taken in hand the work which 
Frederick William arrogated to himself. The Duke of 
Brunswick seems to have been the only prince who 
publicly declared his adhesion to the King of Prussia's 
leadership. The people of every state except Prussia 
looked coldly on the claims of the candidate for empire, 
or rejected them absolutely, and, in some instances, 
with scorn. The Wiener Zeitung of March 25th, pub- 



ENTHUSIASM IN FAVOR OF POLAND. 1*77 

lished an " answer of the German nation to the King 
of Prussia," in which it reproaches the King for appeal- 
ing to the Prussian people, and the German nation, 
" amidst the thunder of artillery, and the death-groans 
of murdered citizens ;" it taunts the King with his for- 
mer want of good faith, and protests that, as (contrary 
to Frederick William's solemn assertion) Germany is 
not threatened with any danger whatever, the King 
had no business to anticipate the decision of the Ger- 
man Parliament, by assuming the lead of Germany. 
The King is told that Germany will bear with him as 
long as Prussia does so, but no longer, and that his 
majesty's claims to the confidence of the German nation 
are inadmissible. 

In the first flush of his enthusiasm, and before his 
pretensions to leadership were thus cruelly snubbed, 
Frederick William ordered 20,000 of his troops to 
march against Denmark, in order to wrest the province 
of Schleswig from its rightful sovereign, and annex it to 
the German Confederation. 

A sudden enthusiasm in favor of Poland broke out 
in Germany in the first days of revolutionary fervor. 
On the 20th of March the doors of the state prison of 
Berlin were thrown open, and the condemned Poles 
came forth. An immense crowd accompanied them 
and filled the air with shouts of joy. The horses were 
taken from the carriage in which Mieroslawski and his 
companions were seated, and the people drew the 
liberated captives to the palace and thence to the uni- 
versity. White handkerchiefs were waved by the ladies 
from every window. Mieroslawski stood up in the 
carriage, holding in his hand the black, red, and golden 
banner, and acknowledged the enthusiastic applause of 
the people, who accompanied the carriage in countless 
masses, by waving his flag. As the procession entered 
the Schlossplatz, his majesty appeared upon the balcony. 

On the following day a Polish deputation from Posen 
M 8 * 



178 GERMANY. 

arrived in Berlin, and all its demands were conceded. 
The duchy was to be divided into two moieties, the one 
Polish, the other German, and each was to have its 
own local administration. This arrangement was cor- 
dially approved of by the rest of Germany ; the exiles 
from Austrian and Prussian Poland were invited to 
return, and were everywhere greeted with cordial sym- 
pathy in their passage through the German states. 

The affairs of Posen in 1848 form one of the most 
melancholy episodes in that year of revolutions. Eight 
days after Mieroslawski's triumphal procession through 
the streets of Berlin, civil war broke out in Posen be- 
tween the German and the Polish races, and for six 
weeks it was carried on with the most savage cruelty 
on both sides. The very same Poles who had frater- 
nized with the German party in Berlin, now butchered, 
mutilated, disembowelled, or burned all the Germans 
who fell into their hands. Their antagonists retaliated 
these barbarities in equal measure ; but as the horrid 
details of the contest are known to us almost entirely 
through German statements, we forbear to express any 
opinion as to which party was the aggressor in the 
strife, or the more culpable in its prosecution. This, 
however, we may say, that whatever may have been 
the provocation they received, the conduct of the Polish 
party was such as to disgust their best friends, and to 
give their enemies additional grounds for affirming their 
total unfitness for the enjoyment of independence. At 
last the terms of the partition were arranged, the line 
of demarcation between German and Polish Posen was 
determined on the 26th of April, and on the 10th of 
the following month the insurrection was terminated 
by the capture of Mieroslawski and the defeat of his 
band, the last outstanding remains of a Polish army 
of 30,000 men. 

The beginning of the year 1848 found the two lead- 



PROPOSED CONGRESS OF SOVEREIGNS. 1*79 

ing powers of Germany busily concerting measures 
with Russia and France for the forcible extinction of 
the free spirit that was displaying its strength in some 
of the minor states of the Continent. Switzerland had 
brought her civil war to a happy termination, with a 
rapidity that disconcerted the calculations of the con- 
federate despots; nevertheless they hoped, by diplo- 
matic means, to retrieve their lost opportunity, and 
under the pretext of amicable intervention to undo the 
settlement of the Helvetic Republic, or at least -to create 
an excuse for coercing it by force of arms. Italy was 
also making demonstrations that called for immediate 
repression, and the more so, because her princes were 
either passively submitting to the popular impulse, or 
were actually leading the movement for reform and 
national independence. To meet the emergency the 
Holy Alliance was revived, and a compact was entered 
into between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, by which it 
was stipulated that the latter should direct her forces 
against the contumacious Swiss and Italians, while her 
own discontented provinces should be kept in check by 
the armies of her two allies. But the French Revolu- 
tion annihilated these plans, and the contracting parties 
were compelled to look each to their own safety, and 
reserve their armies for home service. On the first of 
March the canton of Neufchatel threw off the Prussian 
yoke, and was admitted a member of the Swiss Con- 
federation. Prussia submitted to the loss in silence. 

At the instance of Prussia and Austria, the German 
sovereigns now agreed to hold a congress at Dresden 
on the 25th of March, to concert measures against the 
danger with which they thought themselves threat- 
ened from beyond the Rhine. But when the ap- 
pointed day arrived every German state was in the 
first heyday of Revolution, and the sovereigns were all 
kept fast within their respective capitals by the fear 
that, if they departed from them, they might possibly 



180 GERMANY. 

not find it an easy matter to gain readmission. Instead, 
therefore, of a congress of princes, there took place an 
assemblage of delegates from the people of all Ger- 
many, with the intent of remodelling the federal 
organization. The Diet sitting at Frankfort had al- 
ready manifested its desire to promote that great work, 
to which end it ha/l invited its seventeen constituents 
to send to it as many "men of public confidence," 
to assist in its deliberations. 

On the 31st of March, five hundred deputies from 
all parts of Germany held their first sitting in Frankfort, 
as a preliminary assembly for the formation of a na- 
tional Parliament. Almost the first question they had 
to decide was, as to what territories should send repre- 
sentatives to the Central Assembly ; and it was re- 
solved unanimously, that Schleswig-Holstein should be 
invited to exercise that privilege, as forming part of the 
German Confederation. The same was declared with 
regard to the provinces of East and West Prussia. 
Some difference of opinion existed with regard to Po- 
sen, but at last it was agreed that since the retention 
of that province might impede the re-establishment of 
the independent kingdom of Poland, which all Germany 
wished most ardently to see liberated from the bar- 
barous yoke of Russia, the Assembly would content it- 
self with declaring that it would endeavor to find 
means for protecting the 700,000 Germans living 
in that province. The preliminary assembly (vorjmr- 
lament) further resolved, in concert with the Diet, that 
a National Assembly should immediately be elected by 
universal suffrage, in the proportion of one member 
for every 50,000 of the population, and that any Ger- 
man should be eligible thereto for any part of Ger- 
many. 

Having made these arrangements, the preliminary 
assembly adjourned, but left behind it a permanent 
committee of fifty. This committee, with the seventeen 



NATIONAL CONGRESS. 181 

" men of confidence," whose voices were paramount in 
the Diet, constituted from the beginning of April 
to the middle of May the supreme council that 
governed Germany. Besides drawing up a project of 
a constitution for the collective German states, another 
important part of its labors consisted in directing mi- 
litary operations against the armed Republican party. 
The lake district of Baden was the only part of 
Germany where that party was not decidedly in the 
minority, and there only the Republican flag was 
raised. It was hoisted in Constanz and Freiburg, 
under the protection of a free corps led by Hecker and 
Struve ; but its defenders were met within a w r eek 
(April 20), and totally routed by the forces of the 
Confederation. General von Gagern, the commander 
of the latter, was treacherously murdered in a parley 
before the battle began. Hecker escaped ; Struve was 
taken prisoner, but soon after rescued. Freiburg was 
stormed on the 24th, Constanz ^is occupied on the 
same day, and the Republic was brought to an end in 
both places. Herwegh, the poet and communist, 
arrived with his free corps from France too late to 
prevent the catastrophe that had befallen his brethren. 
His own 900 men were totally routed on the 27th by 
a single company of Wurtemburg troops, with a 
loss of 23 killed and 200 taken prisoners. Herwegh, 
with his wife, who was armed and present in the fight, 
escaped to Switzerland. 

The German Parliament held its first sitting in 
Frankfort on the 1 8th of May, and elected as its presi- 
dent Heinrich von Gagern, an able and judicious man, 
and almost the only continental statesman who passed 
through the ordeal of the last eight months of '48 with a 
steadily rising reputation. On the 28th of June the 
parliament enacted a law, creating a provisional cen- 
tral power for the administration of all affairs, civil and 
military, foreign and domestic, which affect the whole 



182 GERMANY. 

of the German nation, that power to be confided to a 
Regent (reichsverweser), elected by the National As- 
sembly, and himself irresponsible, but acting through 
responsible ministers. On the following day the 
Archduke John of Austria was elected Regent, by 
a very large majority. He arrived soon after in 
Frankfort, where he was received with great demon- 
strations of joy, and was solemnly installed in office on 
the 12th of July; on which day also the High 
German Diet, born in 1815, held its seventy-first and 
last sitting, its power passing into the hands of the 
Provisional Central Government. 



AUSTRIA. 183 



CHAPTER IX. 
AUSTRIA. * 

THE EMPEROR'S FIRST FLIGHT FROM VIENNA — BOHEMIA, HUNGARY, 
AND CROATIA. 

For. two months after the Revolution of March, 
Vienna remained in a state of precarious, yet uninter- 
rupted, peace. But the dishonesty of the Emperor's 
secret advisers on the one hand, and the inflammatory 
harangues and writings of the demagogues on the 
other, kept up an angry and turbulent disposition of 
the public mind, which at last displayed itself in a 
fresh revolutionary movement on the 15th of May. 

The provisional law for the elections to the National 
Assembly had given great dissatisfaction to the Liberal 
party. The aristocratic constitution of the Upper 
Chamber, and the indirect form of election for the 
Lower, were specially pointed out as objectionable. 
The excitement produced by these considerations was 
further increased by an order of the 13th of May, for 
the dissolution of the central committee of the National 
Guard, consisting of about two hundred individuals, 
organized for political objects, and which, backed as it 
was by such a large array of physical force, threatened 
to overawe the constituted authorities. The students 
of the University took the lead in resisting these unpo- 
pular measures of the Government, and on the morning 
of the 15th they preferred the following demands to 
the Ministry : — 1. That the military, who, during the 



184 AUSTRIA. 

preceding night, had bivouacked in large numbers on 
the glacis, should be withdrawn. 2. That the central 
committee of the National Guard should not be dis- 
solved. 3. That the law for the elections should be 
declared null and void. 

For a whole day the Ministers withstood these 
demands ; but finding themselves without a sufficient 
force to resist the armed petitioners, — for the National 
Guard had joined the students, — they gave up the 
struggle, and at midnight Pillersdorff, the Minister of 
the Interior, issued a proclamation conceding all that 
was asked for. A new revolution was thus ratified, 
for the constitution of April 25 was superseded, and it 
was settled that the Diet should consist of but one 
Chamber. 

On the day following this event, the Emperor and 
his family absconded from the capital, and fled to 
Inspruck in the Tyrol. The Ministers and the whole 
population of Vienna were thrown into consternation, 
and messengers were despatched with the most press- 
ing entreaties to recall the fugitives, who obstinately 
rejected all such overtures. Meanwhile the agents of 
the camarilla, and the aristocratic party who had coun- 
selled the Emperor's flight, were taking pains to make 
that event subservient to their reactionary projects. 
They caused reports to be spread in the provincial 
towns that the Viennese had stormed the Imperial 
palace, dragging the monarch from his bed, and ill- 
treated his sacred person. Having produced a strong- 
feeling of pious horror in the provinces by such stories 
as these, the reactionists prepared to make a coup de 
main in the capital. 

On the 25th of May it was reported in Vienna, that 
three regiments were to enter the city at night, and 
the announcement spread universal alarm. On the 
following morning the Academical Legion received 
orders to disband within twenty-four hours. On their 



PEACE RESTORED IN VIENNA. 185 

refusal to lay down their arms, the gates of the town 
were shut and guarded by soldiers.; but the workmen 
from the suburbs stormed them, and one of the assail- 
ants, a workman, was killed in the conflict. This be- 
came the signal for a general insurrection, and once 
more barricades arose in every street. This state of 
tilings lasted until the night without further hostilities, 
and ended in the complete victory of the people, whose 
conditions were again, as on the 15th, accepted and 
ratified by the Ministers. These conditions stipulated 
the continuance of the Academical Legion ; the re- 
moval of the military to a distance of four leagues from 
Vienna ; and the return of the Emperor within eight 
days, or the appointment of one of the princes to repre- 
sent him. 

Peace was now restored ; the barricades were taken 
down, and business was resumed. The Viennese were 
still, indeed, deprived of the presence of their Emperor, 
who remained ill at Inspruck ; but he appointed his 
uncle, the Archduke John, to represent him in the 
capital, and open the x\ssembly in his name. This 
was accordingly done on the 2 2d of July, in a speech 
breathing amity and peace towards all the States of 
the Empire, and all foreign countries. Even of Italy 
the Archduke said, — " The war in Italy is not directed 
against the liberties of the people of that country.: its 
real object is to maintain the honor of the Austrian 
arms in presence of the Italian Powers, at the same 
time recognising their nationality, and to support the 
most important interests of the State." 

The Emperor at last relented, and returned to his 
capital on the 12 th of August; and thus ended the 
second phase of the Viennese Revolution. Let us 
now see what had been the course of events in other 
parts of the Empire. 

Two days before the first revolutionary movement 



186 AUSTRIA. 

in Vienna, a meeting, anonymously convoked, was held 
in Prague, for the purpose of drawing up an address 
to the Government. The demands agreed on were as 
follows : — Equality of the two races (Tchech and Ger- 
man) ; every public officer to be required to speak 
both languages ; Union of Bohemia, Moravia, and 
Silesia, guaranteed by a common diet, which should 
meet alternately at Prague and Brun ; representative 
and municipal reform ; publicity of judicial proceed- 
ings ; absolute liberty of the press ; a responsible 
chancery sitting in Prague ; the arming of the people ; 
suppression of feudal rights and jurisdictions ; military 
service obligatory on all ; security for personal liberty ; 
equality of all religious denominations. A petition 
embodying these demands was adopted with cordial 
unanimity by both Tchechs and Germans, and the 
inveterate hostility between the two races seemed for 
the moment extinguished. A deputation carried the 
petition to Vienna ; at first the popular demands were 
met with evasive and dilatory compromises, but event- 
ually, on the 8th of April, the Emperor granted the 
Bohemians all they desired. Bohemia was restored 
to the condition of a substantive state, under the vice- 
royalty of the heir-presumptive of the empire, the 
young archduke Francis Joseph. 

It was not long before the Germans, lately the 
dominant race in Bohemia, began to perceive that, by 
the effect of the imperial rescript of the 8th of 
April, they had sunk lower than to a level with 
the Tchechs, since they were left without any peculiar 
privileges to compensate for their numerical inferiority. 
They formed only two-fifths of the whole population of 
Bohemia, the numbers being, Germans, 1,830,000; 
Tchechs, 2,558,000. Practically, indeed, the Tchechs 
were at once placed on a footing of more than equality 
with regard to their Teutonic brethren, in consequence 
of the rule that all persons employed by the state 



THE TCHECHS AND GERMANS. 18*7 

should speak both languages. The obligation former- 
ly imposed on the Tchechs to learn the German lan- 
guage, now turned to the disadvantage of the German 
himself, who had never condescended to acquire any 
Slavonic tongue. Hence the Germans became in- 
capacitated for all state employments, and these were 
filled exclusively by Tchechs, even in districts inhabited 
altogether by the Teuton stock. The old rancor 
between the two races broke out as violently as ever, 
but their relative position was now changed, for the op- 
pressed had become the oppressors. It was plain that 
the imperial authorities favored this inversion of the 
old order of things, and of this they gave a very signifi- 
cant proof in appointing Count Leo Thun, who, though 
a German by birth, was recognised as the leader of the 
Tchechs, to supersede Count Stadion as burgrave. 

"Whatever might be the views of some ultra-Tchechs 
and panslavists of the Muscovite school, the great bulk 
of the Austro- Slaves regarded union with Austria as 
essential to the renovation of their national fortunes. 
Their ultimate object was to transform the Austrian 
empire into a Slavonic confederation ; hence they repu- 
diated all connexion with the Frankfort Assembly, and 
professed an exclusive allegiance to their own emperor. 
Now there was nothing the cabinet of Vienna so much 
dreaded at that moment as to see the independent ex- 
istence of the Austrian empire merged in German 
unity ; great, therefore, was the secret satisfaction with 
which it witnessed the resistance made by Bohemia to 
the invading spirit of Teutonism. In spite of the 
orders, entreaties, and menaces of Frankfort, Bohemia 
remained virtually unrepresented in the German Na- 
tional Assembly, for instead of ninety deputies, it sent 
thither hardly more than a dozen, and of these not one 
was furnished by Prague. 

The next step of the Tchech leaders was to convoke 
a general Slavonic congress. The idea came, perhaps, 



188 AUSTRIA. 

from Croatia, from Louis Stur and Jellachich ; but it 
could only be realized in Prague. To this end a pro- 
clamation was circulated, inviting representatives of the 
race from all the Austrian provinces, and even from fo- 
reign states, to assemble at Prague on the 31st of May, 
and concert measures for protecting the independence 
and nationality of the Slavonic people connected with 
Austria, which were then in great and imminent peril ; 
for " the Germans," said the proclamation, " are assem- 
bling in the Parliament of Frankfort, which is about to 
take from Austria as much of its sovereignty as is re- 
quisite to constitute the Germanic unity. The Austrian 
empire is therefore about to be incorporated with 
the German empire, and it will carry along with it all 
the non-German provinces, Hungary excepted." In ac- 
cordance with this summons three hundred deputies, in 
costumes of the most distant countries, assembled 
at the appointed time ; and, as if the more to ex- 
asperate Germany, the opening of the Slavonic Con- 
gress was accompanied by the establishment of a Pro- 
visional Government in Prague, the pretext for which 
had been furnished by the events of the 26th of 
May in Vienna. The burgrave, Leo Thun, affecting to 
consider the Viennese ministry as captives in the hands 
of insurgents, had created a council of regency in 
direct correspondence with the emperor. Of the thir- 
teen members of this Government two only were Ger- 
mans. 

Opened on the 2d of June, the Congress was 
abruptly closed- on the 12th ; but even in this brief in- 
terval enough transpired to show the general nature of 
the vast revolution which the Slavonians were seeking 
to effect in Central Europe. The Congress published 
a manifesto to the nations of Christendom, declar- 
ing that they were about to form a central federation 
in Austria ; that they utterly repudiated all thought of 
Russian panslavism ; that being bent on obtaining full 



UNANIMITY OF THE CONGRESS AT PRAGUE. 189 

justice for all Slaves, they would insist on reparation 
from Russia for the partition of Poland ; and from 
Prussia, Saxony, Hungary, Austria, and Turkey, for their 
many aggressions upon the nationality of their Slave 
subjects ; and that they solicited a European congress 
in order to the equitable adjustment of these claims. 
The first and most essential step to the accomplish- 
ment of these objects was to establish between the 
Slavonic nations themselves that concord and recipro- 
city, for want of which they had severally fallen under 
the yoke of the foreigner. The cordial unanimity that 
prevailed in the Prague Congress was most remarka- 
ble. Each branch of the great family freely surren- 
dered some of its own predilections for the common 
good. The Illyrians, regardless of Russian patronage, 
joined in the protest against the partition of Poland. 
The Poles, abandoning their sympathies with the 
Hungarians, took part with the Slovacks and Croats ; 
and they also resolved themselves to do for the Ruthe- 
nians what they demanded of the Magyars for the 
Slovacks and Croats. A large part of the countries 
formerly subject to Poland are inhabited by a Slavonic 
race, of a different origin and dialect from the Poles. 
Gallicia, Southern Russia, and parts of Bessarabia and 
Transylvania, are peopled by Malo-Russians or Ruthe- 
nians, a race whom the Poles have always treated as 
of less noble blood than themselves. Hence it was 
that the agents of Austria so easily succeeded in setting 
on the peasants of Gallicia to murder the Polish nobles 
in 1846. Conscious of the fatal errors and omissions 
of former revolutions, the Polish nobles in the Prague 
congress resolved to abolish all remains of feudal servi- 
tude, and to recognise the independence and equality 
of the two races and tongues in Gallicia. 

The Congress too plainly manifested that its care for 
the preservation of the Austrian monarchy was but a 
means to the attainment of a very different object, and 



190 AUSTRIA. 

it was animated by a democratic spirit that disappointed 
and alarmed the Inspruck camarilla. The Viennese 
ministry could not pardon the slight put upon it by the 
Provisional Government of Bohemia, and it declared 
that body to be illegal and its acts null and void. 
This challenge was answered, as probably it was in- 
tended that it should be, by an insurrection which 
raged for five days, ending on the 17th of June; nor 
was it put down until Prince Windischgratz, the Aus- 
trian commander, had bombarded the town from the 
adjacent heights, and laid much of it in ruins. Prague 
relapsed into its former state of dependence on Vienna ; 
the Slavonic Congress was dispersed, and even the 
Bohemian Parliament, which was to have opened on 
the 1 8th of June, was indefinitely postponed ; but the 
triumph of Teutonism over Slavism was far from 
having been consummated. 

The atrocious cruelties committed by the Insurgent 
Tchechs bore a strong family likeness to the horrors of 
which the Taborites were guilty, during the Hussite 
wars. They cut off the noses and ears of the soldiers 
whom they took alive, and murdered them after having 
thus tormented them. Twenty-six Hussars were thrown 
into the Moldau on the 13th, and a National Guard, 
who had shot two Tchechs in the performance of his 
duty, was crucified on the door of his own house. 

Almost the first shot fired in the insurrection killed 
the Princess Windischgratz in her own apartment. 
The Prince's behavior on this sad occasion stands in 
honorable contrast with his later deeds. Owing to 
the Prince's refusal to give cannon and ammunition to 
the students, a mob gathered round his house on the 
12th, hooting, yelling, and threatening. The, military 
on duty having in vain called on them to disperse, and 
the fatal shot having been fired that deprived the un- 
fortunate Princess of life, the bereaved husband came 



HUNGARIAN DEPUTATION. 191 

out, and with great dignity and calmness thus addressed 
the rioters : — 

" Gentlemen — If it is your desire to insult me be- 
cause I am of noble birth, go to my palace, and do there 
as you may think fit. I will even give you a guard 
that you may not be disturbed in your amusement. 
But if you act thus because I am commander of 
Prague, and purpose making a demonstration in front 
of this building, I tell you candidly that I shall prevent 
such a step with every means at my command. My 
wife now lies a lifeless corpse above stairs, and yet I 
address you in words of kindness. Gentlemen, do not 
drive me to severe measures." 

The reply of the mob to this magnanimous speech 
was to seize the Prince and drag him to the next lamp- 
post, where a rope was promptly forthcoming ; but the 
Prince was rescued by his grenadiers, and in five 
minutes afterwards the artillery swept the streets. The 
Prince's son was mortally wounded in the affray. 

The day after the Emperor of Austria had become a 
constitutional monarch, he received' a deputation of a 
thousand Hungarian gentlemen, headed by the Pala- 
tine, Archduke Stephen, and bearing an address, voted 
by the Diet. The demands preferred in that document 
were, — the nomination of a separate ministry for the 
kingdom, consisting solely of Hungarians, and respon- 
sible for all its acts to the Diet ; a new representation 
of the whole population, without distinction of rank or 
birth ; the organization of a national guard ; the trans- 
ference of the Diet from Presburg to Pesth ; and a 
liberal constitution for all the other states of the em- 
pire. Furthermore, the address declared it to be the 
firm intention of Hungary, as well as an essential con- 
dition of its welfare, to remain indissolubly united to 
the empire. 



192 • AUSTRIA. 

A part of these demands was hardly consistent with 
the pledge of union that accompanied them. For 
instance, not content with a distinct administration for 
the internal affairs of the kingdom, the Hungarians 
insisted on having their own ministry of foreign affairs, 
a thing clearly incompatible with any kind of state 
federation. How is it possible to reconcile with the 
idea of an imperial unity the existence of separate and 
perhaps contrary relations with foreign countries ? 
Nations so situated with respect to each other may 
severally obey the same sovereign, like Great Britain 
and Hanover under the Georges, but they cannot form 
parts of one empire. 

But the Court of Vienna was just then in no condi- 
tion to be critical. The demands of the Hungarians 
were granted in their fullest extent, and a new adminis- 
tration was formed under the presidency of Count 
Batthiany, the leader of the Opposition in the Chamber 
of Magnates. The department of finance was occupied 
by the advocate Kossuth, who had led the extreme 
section of the Opposition in the Second Chamber. 
Under his influence the Diet forthwith consummated 
all those important internal reforms which had been 
begun by the spontaneous movement of the generous 
Hungarian nobles, and which had been steadily prose- 
cuted up to the moment when the European revolution 
broke out. The last remains of the oppressive feudal 
system were swept away. The peasants were declared 
free from all seignorial claims; in other words, the 
tenants of one half the lands in Hungary were declared 
possessors of that land, reu$ free, the landlords to be 
indemnified by the country at large. The peasant and 
the burgher were at once admitted to all the rights of 
nobles ; and a new electoral law was passed, conferring 
the suffrage on all who possessed property to the 
amount of 300 florins, or thirty pounds sterling. After 
decreeing these important measures, the Diet was dis- 



HUNGARY. 193 

solved, and a new Diet was summoned for the second of 
July. During the recess the Diet of Transylvania met, 
and voted the union of that country to Hungary, from 
which it had been separated for more than two hundred 
years. 

But now arose new difficulties, the peculiar nature 
of which demands some preliminary explanations. 

The kingdom of Hungary, like the empire of which 
it forms part, is a crude agglomeration of various races, 
between whom there exist, unallayed even by an inci- 
pient decree of assimilation, the strongest mutual con- 
trasts in physical character, language, religion, manners, 
and customs. The Hungarians proper, or Magyars,, 
are in a minority, their number a little exceeding four 
out of the ten millions of the population. This Scythian 
race, which entered the country about a century before 
the Norman invasion of England, has retained many 
characteristics of a conquering invasion, and stands, 
therefore, in the anomalous position of a subject to- 
wards Austria and an oppressor towards the aboriginal 
race, the Slavonian, which slightly exceeds its num- 
bers. The Wallacks, or Romnani, descended from 
Trajan's legionary colonists, are about a million. The 
Germans are somewhat less numerous; and the rest 
of the population is made up of a miscellaneous scat- 
tering of Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Italians, French, <fec. 

Among the grievances alleged against the Magyars 
by the other races of Hungary, there was one which 
seems to have been resented with peculiar acrimony. 
After long struggles, the Magyars had forced the 
Austrian Government to discontinue the use of the 
Latin language, and substitute for it the Magyar in 
its official intercourse with Hungary. It would be im- 
possible to exaggerate the passionate eagerness with 
which the Hungarians had pursued this object, or the 
exultation with which they hailed a victory so gratify - 
ing to their national pride. Something, however, was 
N 9 



194 AUSTRIA. 

still wanting ; they had acquired the right of employ- 
ing their own language in their dealings with Austria ; 
but in order to make it the common language of Hun- 
gary, it was necessary to teach it to the other more 
numerous races of the kingdom, most of whom knew 
Latin (very badly, no doubt), but not a word of Magyar. 
And now those very men who had thought it such a 
hardship that they should be compelled to speak in an 
alien tongue, did not scruple to impose the same hard 
terms on others. In every village, by whatever race 
occupied, .the schoolmaster was obliged to give his 
lessons and the priest to deliver his sermons in 
Magyar ; and in the Diet no other language was 
allowed. It is easy to imagine the intense irritation 
produced by this arbitrary proscription of the mother- 
tongue of six millions of people. The resistance was 
vehement on all hands ; but it was especially in Croatia 
that the pretensions of the Magyars to be sole repre- 
sentatives of Hungarian nationality encountered the 
most sturdy opposition. 

The Croats are a tribe of the Illyrian branch of the 
great Slavonic stock. Then country occupies the 
southern portion of Hungary, from the Drave to the 
point where the Danube, suddenly changing its direc- 
tion near Belgrade, runs again eastward. Croatia 
embraces a surface of 950 square miles, and its po- 
pulation, including the frontier regiments, is about 
800,000 souls. Under the name of the kingdom of 
Croatia and Esclavonia, it is ruled by its own peculiar 
laws, has its separate Diet sitting in Agram, its capital, 
and may be considered as standing in the same relation 
to the Government at Pesth as Hungary does to the 
Austrian Government (regnum in regno).* The Croat 
Diet was represented in that of Hungary by three de- 
legates from its own body, and the viceroyalty of the 

* A kingdom within a kingdom. 



THE BAN OF CROATIA. 195 

kingdom is exercised by a chief elected by the Diet 
with the approbation of the Emperor. His title is 
that of Ban of Croatia, and his office is the third in 
dignity under the Crown of Hungary, and next to 
those of the Palatine and the Supreme Judge. 

The aversion with which the Croats always regarded 
the Hungarians was greatly augmented after the 16th 
of March ; for they feared, that when the common 
pressure of Vienna was removed from both countries, 
Croatia would Ml into subjection to Hungary. The 
latter had already wrested from the feeble hands of the 
Imperial Government the control of the military fron- 
tiers of the kingdom, which had previously belonged 
to the Aulic Council. The warlike inhabitants of 
those countries are, for the most part, Croats ; placed 
at the disposal of the Hungarian Ministry, they were 
lost for the common defence of the empire, and might 
be made instrumental in coercing Croatia. Further- 
more, the Diet of Agram complained that its privi- 
leges, as regarded the Assembly at Pesth, had been 
subverted without its own consent. Croatia, as a se- 
parate kingdom, had a right of veto in certain cases in 
the Diet ; it was now deprived of that safeguard of its 
independence by a new arrangement, which augmented 
indeed the number of its representatives, but reduced 
the effective value of their votes to that of their nume- 
rical ratio to the Hungarian and Transylvanian majority. 
The Croats protested against the usurpation, and no 
deputy of their nation appeared at the opening of the 
Diet of Pesth in July. The Hungarian Government 
took no pains to allay the jealousy of the less favored 
race : not one Croat was admitted into the Ministry, or 
into any of the higher offices of state. This inordinate 
selfishness soon provoked its own punishment. 

The Baron Joseph Jellachich, a colonel in the mili- 
tary colonies, idolized by his soldiers, had long been 
looked on with hopeful eyes by the patriots of Agram. 



196 AUSTRIA. 

Elected by the unanimous suffrages of his countrymen 
to be their Ban, he immediately assumed a hostile 
attitude towards Hungary. There was no need to 
look for any recondite motives of this policy ; its 
causes lay plain to sight in the character and circum- 
stances of Jellachich's nation. The Magyars, however, 
affected to consider him as the paid lieutenant of 
Nicholas — a gratuitous supposition, totally at variance 
with the Ban's proud, frank, and chivalrous nature. It 
was not alone in districts over which he had sway that 
the Slaves were arrayed against the usurping race : 
those of the northern districts rose also in insurrection. 
The revolution of the 16th of March had only hastened 
the explosion of their long-gathered resentment. The 
language of all the Slaves to the Magyars was pre- 
cisely the same as that which the latter had for twenty 
years addressed to the Austrian Government ; and the 
new Hungarian Government replied in words which 
seemed as though they had been borrowed literally 
from the old Imperial Government. " Croatia is in 
revolt ! " said the minister Kossuth, in the sitting of 
the 11th of July. "The Croats have imagined that, 
under favor of the revolutionary crisis in Europe, they 
might put themselves with impunity in open rebellion 
against the Hungarian monarchy. The new Ban has 
not presented himself in Pesth, notwithstanding the 
order conveyed to him to that effect." And then, 
suddenly possessed with a singular affection for his 
majesty the King of Hungary, Kossuth concluded his 
speech with these lofty words, which would not have 
ill become a loyal chancellor of the realm, — " We 
will never acknowledge that the Ban Jellachich 
is upon the same level with the King of Hungary : 
the King of Hungary may pardon ; the duty of Jella- 
chich is to obey ! " 

It must be owned that, in thus denouncing Jella- 
chich as a rebel, Kossuth was warranted by no less 



THE BAN DECLARED A REBEL. 197 

an authority than that of the Emperor himself. The 
Ban had summoned an extraordinary diet of the triple 
kingdom of Dalmatia, Esclavonia, and Croatia, to meet 
in Agram, on the 5th of June, and deputies from all the 
other Austro-Slavonian countries were invited to attend. 
The Imperial Government declared this Diet illegal ; 
and Jellachich was summoned to appear before the 
Emperor at Inspruck, and account for his conduct. 
He refused to obey the summons. The Diet was held, 
and he was installed at Agram in his new dignity with 
unusual pomp and ceremony, the oath* being adminis- 
tered to him by the G reek bishop of Carlowitz. There- 
upon the Emperor issued a decree, the execution of 
which was confided to Count Batthiany, by which the 
contumacious Ban was declared to be a rebel, and 
divested of all his offices and powers. All civil and mili- 
tary functionaries were ordered to refuse him obedience, 
otherwise they should be considered his accomplices 
and fellow-rebels. At the same time the Austrian 
field-marshal Ilrabowsky took the field against the 
insurgent Croatians. Early in June he bombarded 
Carlowitz, where the insurgents had mustered about 
7000 men. The town was completely destroyed ; no 
trace left of its splendid cathedral and aichducal 
palace : nothing remained but a smoking heap of ruins. 
The town of Neusatz, too, bad prepared to withstand a 
siege, but surrendered on being threatened by Ilra- 
bowsky with the same treatment he had inflicted on 
Carlowitz, 



198 AUSTRIA. 



CHAPTER X. 
AUSTRIA. 

THE CIVIL "WAR IN HUNGARY MURDER OF COUNT LAMBERS. 

At last, however, trie Ban repaired to Inspruck in 
the beginning of July, and offered such explanations 
as could leave no doubt respecting his attachment to 
the Imperial authority. An attempt was then made 
to smoothe away the difference between the Ban of 
Croatia and the Hungarian Ministry, and the Arch- 
duke John was intrusted with the task of mediation. 
He, however, was soon afterwards appointed Regent 
of the Empire, and the Ban returned to Agrarn. 
Some weeks were thus lost ; but at last a conference 
was opened at Vienna between Jellachich and Count 
Batthiany. Both were obstinate and arrogant in their 
pretensions, and the Imperial Government was too 
weak to exact from them the reciprocal concessions 
necessary to a peaceful settlement of the dispute. The 
two plenipotentiaries parted with terms of mutual 
defiance. " We shall meet again on the Drave " (tjie 
frontier of Croatia), said Count Batthiany. "No," 
retorted Jellachich, " but on the Danube." The quar- 
rel was only to be settled by the arbitrament of arms ; 
yet to the very last hour efforts were made to resume 
negotiations; the Palatine was appointed to succeed 
the Archduke John as mediator, and Count Batthiany 
had a final interview with the Ban in the very camp 
of the Croatians. 



THE CROATS DENOUNCED. 199 

While Jellachich was strengthening his connexion 
with Vienna, the Hungarian Government was opening 
the new Diet at Pesth. The previous assemblies had 
met at Presburg, a little town on the verge of the 
Austrian frontier, and consequently placed, as it were, 
under the hands of the Imperial Government. The 
Archduke Stephen opened the Diet on the 5th of 
July, in the name of his majesty, King Ferdinand V. 
The language in which he condemned the Croat insur- 
rection was unequivocal. " The King," he said, " after 
having spontaneously sanctioned the laws voted by the 
Diet, has seen with grief, that the agitators, especially 
in Croatia, have excited the inhabitants of different 
creeds and languages against each other. By harass- 
ing them with false rumors and idle terrors, they have 
been driven to resist laws which, they assumed, were 
not the free expression of his Majesty's will. Some 
have gone further, and have averred that their resist- 
ance was made in the interest of the royal house and 
with the knowledge and consent of his Majesty. His 
Majesty scorns such insinuations; the King and his 
royal family will at all times respect the laws and pro- 
tect the liberties granted to his people." 

In the Chamber of Deputies, Kossuth explained the 
existing state of things in a speech which could not be 
denied the merit of great frankness. " You see with 
your own eyes," he said, " the frightful situation of the 
country ; the treasury is empty, and the land without 
an army. Perhaps we are come too late to complete 
the reforms of the constitution. Justice had been too 
long delayed, -and the day when its reign was pro- 
claimed beheld the dissolution of all the bonds that 
had held the nation together." With respect to the 
Croatian question, the minister was of opinion, that 
notwithstanding the evident rights of Hungary, the 
only means that remained for it to settle its difference 
with Croatia was, to entreat the king to interfere as 



200 AUSTRIA. 

mediator between the two countries. In conclusion, lie 
asked for an extraordinary contribution of 50,000,000 
of florins, and a levy of 200,000 men, both for the 
purpose of terminating the quarrel with Croatia by 
force of arms, if needful ; and also in order to aid in 
supporting the cause of the empire in Italy. These 
proposals were adopted by acclamation, and a decree 
was issued for the creation of 5,000,000 of paper 
money. 

Much surprise was felt in Europe at the resolution 
of the Diet to help in upholding Austrian domination 
in Italy. Every one would rather have believed that 
Hungary was inclined to make common cause with the 
Italians, at least to the extent of withdrawing her 
troops from Lombardy. But it was not yet generally 
known how very illiberal the liberalism of Pesth could 
be. " Some have expressed a desire," said Kossuth, on 
this occasion, " that we should remove our troops from 
Italy; but were we to do so, 35,000 Croats would also 
return to this country, and give us fine work to do." 
It can scarcely be doubted, that the Hungarian Minis- 
ter of Finance was already resolved to break with the 
Austrian Government, at the very moment when he 
talked most loudly of assisting it with men and money. 
The pretence of sending fresh regiments to Italy was 
only adopted in order to sanction with the Emperor's 
name the levy of troops and contributions, which 
should remain in the minister's own hands, ready for 
all contingencies, war with Austria included. 

One of the earliest measures of the new Hungarian 
Government had been to send a deputy to Paris and 
another to Frankfort, to establish direct relations with 
foreign governments, and to solicit the aid of the cen- 
tral German power. At Frankfort, the deputy Szalay 
represented that the Austrian army could not be con- 
sidered as a German military force ; that it was by its 
very nature dangerous to German freedom ; that it was, 



DOUBLE DEALING. 201 

therefore, the interest of Germany to effect, in concert 
with Hungary, a separation of the various nationalities 
of which that army consisted ; in other words, to bring- 
about a dissolution of the Austrian empire. To pre- 
vent the danger he pointed out, the Hungarian envoy 
solicited the mediation and succor of the German Par- 
liament, not onty against Croatia, but, in case of need, 
against the Imperial Government of Austria. 

These efforts of Hungarian diplomacy were little in 
accordance with the loyal and affectionate spirit towards 
Austria which the Diet professed in its initiatory pro- 
ceedings. Was it the knowledge it had acquired of 
this hostile policy of the Hungarian ministry, that 
prompted the Austrian Government to side openly with 
the Ban of Croatia ? or was the disaffection of the Diet 
a consequence of its conviction that the Imperial party 
was secretly abetting the designs of the Croats ? We 
incline to think that both suppositions must be admit- 
ted, and that the two Governments were from the first 
intent on overreaching each other. The convenient 
morality of the Austrian monarchy would not forbid it 
to reject whatever opportunities might arise for retract- 
ing some of the concessions extorted from it. The 
Hungarian Cabinet, aware of this tendency, would 
constantly seek to combat it by every possible means, 
until at last the mutual jealousy of the two parties 
had entangled them in a quarrel, from which there 
was no issue but by the sword. This view of the case 
is confirmed by the language held "by Kossuth, so early 
as the 11th of July. From the very magnitude of the 
concessions made by Austria, he argued the folly and 
danger of relying on her good faith. " Do not deceive 
yourselves, citizens," he exclaimed ; " the Magyars 
stand alone in the world against the conspiracy of the 
sovereigns and nations that surround them. The 
Emperor of Russia besets us through the Principalities, 
and everywhere, even in Servia, we detect his hand and 
9* 



202 AUSTRIA. 

his gold. In the north, the armed bands of Slaves are 
endeavoring to join the rebels of Croatia, and are pre- 
paring to march against us ; in Vienna, the courtiers 
and statesmen are calculating the advent of the day 
when they shall be able again to rivet the chains of 
their old slaves the Magyars, an undisciplined and 
rebellious race. O, my fellow-citizens, it is thus that 
tyrants have ever designated free men. You are alone, 
I repeat ; are you ready and willing to fight ?" 

During the months of July and August the strife 
between the Imperial Government and the Hungarians 
was waged with arms of courtesy ; but by September 
their mutual acrimony had become uncontrollable. 
Early in that month the Emperor refused to sanction 
the decree for the emission of paper money ; and this 
refusal was met by another decree making it a capital 
felony to refuse the new assignats. Meanwhile civil 
war was raging with great atrocity in all the border 
lands of Hungary ; some troops were assembled on the 
frontiers of Croatia, under the immediate command of 
Meszaros, the Hungarian Minister of War ; but they 
consisted chiefly of Slaves, who showed a great repug- 
nance to serve against their brethren in language and 
religion. The second regiment of Transylvania, con- 
sisting of Wallacks, after arriving by forced marches at 
Tchegedin, refused to advance further, wheeled round 
and returned to its old quarters. 

On the 5th of September, Kossuth was carried to the 
hall of the Diet, enfeebled by illness, but unwilling to 
flinch from a crisis which might be decisive of his 
country's welfare. He declared that, looking upon the 
formidable dangers that surrounded them, the ministers 
of the Crown might soon have to call upon the House 
to name a Dictator, invested with unlimited powers, to 
save the country ; but they w T ere prepared to recom- 
mend a last appeal to the Imperial Government before 
they resorted to a measure which might be construed 



HUNGARIAN ADDRESS TO THE EMPEROR. 203 

into a declaration of independence. A deputation was 
accordingly formed, consisting of one hundred and sixty 
magnates and deputies, who waited on his majesty at 
Schonbrunn, and addressed him in the name of the 
Diet in plain and stern language ■ — 

" It is in the name of that fidelity we have shown for 
centuries to your ancestors that we now come to de- 
mand of you the maintenance of the rights of the king- 
dom. Hungary has not been united to your crown as 
a conquered province but as a free nation, whose privi- 
leges and independence have been insured by your 

Majesty's coronation oath The wishes of the 

people have been satisfied by the laws enacted by the 
last Diet ; why are the rights of the nation menaced 
by an insurrection, the leaders of which declare openly 
that they are in arms on 3^0111* Majesty's behalf ? Whilst 
the blood of Hungary is flowing in Italy in defence of 
the Austrian monarchy, one portion of her children is 
perfidiously excited against the other, and casts off the 
obedience due to the legal Government of the country. 
Insurrection threatens our frontiers, and, under the pre- 
tence of upholding your authority, it is actually assail- 
ing the integrity of the kingdom, and our ancient and 
new liberties ! .... It is in the name of the people 
we call on your Majesty to order the Hungarian regi- 
ments to obey the Hungarian ministry, without reserve, 
and notwithstanding all other orders. We desire that 
Croatia be freed from military despotism, in order that 
it may unite fraternally with Hungary. Finally, we 
demand that your Majesty, discarding the reactionary 
counsels of those ^ibout you, give your immediate sanc- 
tion to all the measures voted by the Diet, and come 
and reside in Pesth among your people, where your 
royal presence is necessary to save the country. Let 
your Majesty hasten. The least delay may occasion 
indescribable calamities." 

To these peremptory demands the Emperor merely 



204 AUSTRIA. 

replied, that " The bad state of his health would not 
allow him to go to Pesth. As for the paper-money 
bill, which he was asked to sanction, he would give it 
his candid consideration, but was inclined to reject it ; 
and as for the Croatian question, he had already ad- 
dressed a manifesto to the Ban, in order to bring about 
an amicable and conciliatory settlement." 

The deputation heard the Emperor's reply in silence, 
and left the presence without uttering a single vivat. 
The ministers Deak and Batthiany, who were at 
Vienna, left the capital with them. The Deputies 
plucked from their caps the plumes of the united colors 
of Austria and Hungary, replaced them with red 
feathers, and hoisted a flag of the same color on the 
steamer in which they returned to Pesth. 

The report of the deputation excited deep resentment 
in the Hungarian capital ; the debates in the Diet were 
vehement and stormy, but the advice of the old consti- 
tutional Opposition prevailed, and it was resolved to 
make another pacific appeal to the Emperor, through 
the mediation of the Palatine. Kossuth and his col- 
leagues resigned, and Count Batthiany undertook to 
form an administration of a more moderate cast ; but 
before his cabinet was well completed, Jellachich had 
begun hostilities, the Diet had suffered another repulse 
at Vienna, and a reaction in public feeling again carried 
Kossuth into power. On the 17th of September the 
Diet had resolved, that a deputation of twenty-five 
members should proceed to Vienna, put themselves in 
direct communication with the National Assembly, de- 
nounce the treacherous conduct of the Central Govern- 
ment, and apply directly to the representatives of the 
empire for aid against the Croats. The Viennese As- 
sembly decided by a majority of 186 votes to 108, 
against receiving the Deputation. Deeply offended by 
this insult, the Diet conferred dictatorial powers on 
Kossuth. The Palatine quitted Hungary on the 25th 



JELLACHICH INVADES HUNGARY. 205 

of September, placed his resignation in the Emperor's 
hands, and retired to his estate in Moravia. 

Jellachich meanwhile had crossed the Drave, the 
river on the banks of which Batthiany had told him 
they should soon meet ; and traversing all Southern 
Hungary without encountering an enemy, he arrived 
at Stuhlweissenburg, within one day's march of the ca- 
pital. On crossing the frontier he had issued the fol- 
lowing proclamation : — 

" To the Hungarian Nation. 

" In setting foot on this land, to which I am attached 
by the liveliest sympathy, I take Heaven to witness 
that I do this act only after having exhausted all means 
of conciliation ; I do it, forced by the plots of a faction 
of which the Hungarian ministry is only the legal in- 
strument, and which, pursuing its criminal projects, 
aims only at debasing the royal majesty, and destroy- 
ing the sacred alliance that attached Hungary and the 
united kingdoms to her king and her constitution. 

" It is vain to call by the name of revolt or treason 
a proceeding which is inspired only by pure love of 
country and fidelity to our king. And let it not be 
feared that I wish to retract any of the concessions or 
privileges lately accorded by the royal word to the 
Hungarian nation. All that has been done legally shall 
be upheld : it is not an enemy who invades the plains 
of Hungary ; it is a friend who comes to the aid of the 
loyal subjects of the constitutional king. They will 
hold out to me the hand of brotherhood; and with 
God's aid we will deliver the country from the yoke of 
an incapable, odious, and rebel government." 

This proclamation is chiefly important in a historical 
point of view, as showing that the invasion of Hungary 
by the Ban was an act done" of -his own sole authority, 
and that he could not allege in its justification any official 
order of the Central Government. He presented him- 



206 AUSTRIA. 

self as the champion of the Emperor and King ; but he 
did not even pretend that he possessed a legal commis- 
sion to act in that capacity. His ostensible character 
was that of the chief of an insurgent province, whose 
proceedings had been openly condemned by the Empe- 
ror himself, and by his viceroy, the Palatine. When, 
therefore, it was discovered that Jellachich was secretly 
abetted and encouraged by the Imperial court, his an- 
tagonists had good reason to inveigh against such foul 
treachery. The grievances of the Croats were real and 
serious ; their cause was just, and coincided with the 
true interests of the empire ; but it was the traditional 
curse of the Imperial Government to pursue even right- 
ful ends by crooked and unrighteous ways. 

Encouraged by the Ban's rapid and unresisted 
march through Hungary, and by the repulse which the 
Magyars had recently sustained in the National Assem- 
bly, the Emperor now thought he might act with a lit- 
tle less disguise. He resolved, therefore, as he said, to 
put an end to the distractions of Hungary, and to re- 
establish the peace and freedom of all his subjects in 
that kingdom, along with the rights of his crown. The 
device he adopted to that end was singularly infelici- 
tous. He appointed Count Lamberg to take the com- 
mand of the whole kingdom and its contending forces ; 
a step, it has been aptly said, about as hopeful and ju- 
dicious as if Charles I. of England had appointed a ge- 
neralissimo over the royal and parliamentary armies of 
his early wars, in the expectation of stopping the civil 
conflict by the simple issue of that commission. Count 
Lamberg arrived in Pesth on the 29th of September, 
without any escort. He appeal's either to have been 
unaware of the dangers of his mission, or to have 
hoped to overbear them by the boldness with which he 
defied them. The unfortunate man fell a victim to his 
temerity. Previously to Ins arrival, the Diet had re- 
solved that the commission by which he was appointed 



MURDER OF COUNT LAMBERG. 207 

was illegal, not being countersigned by any minister, 
and that all troops and officials obeying him would com- 
mit high treason to Hungary. Thus virtually outlawed, 
he was immediately beset, in the house he first entered 
in Pesth, by a furious mob, intent on killing him. He 
escaped thence, and fled to the commander-in-chief's 
house in Buda ; tracked thither he attempted to return 
and claim the protection of the Diet ; he was stopped 
on the bridge, torn from his carriage, and killed on the 
spot, and his disfigured body was dragged by the mad- 
dened people through the streets of the town. 

The very same Imperial decree which nominated 
Lamberg to his ill-fated mission, imposed an armistice 
on the two contending parties in Hungary, and ordered 
the Moravian troops to enter the kingdom for the sup- 
pression of the Slavonic insurrection. But accident re- 
vealed the perfidy of these Imperial manifestations. On 
the 30th of September, letters were intercepted from 
Jellachich to Count Latour, the Minister of War at Vi- 
enna, showing that the Croatian Ban had been regu- 
larly supplied with subsidies from the capital. Thus 
the Emperor stood convicted of suborning civil war 
against his own subjects ; and a minister, until then ac- 
counted respectable, was exposed in the act of lending 
himself to that wicked treason against the State. Lam- 
berg was murdered ; and Latour, as we shall see by 
and by, was murdered with every token of ferocity that 
could increase the horror of the deed. But far more 
wicked than the actual perpetrators were the cold- 
blooded intriguers at Vienna, whose treachery provoked 
the furious passions of the populace, and brought about 
those lamentable scenes. They indeed were guilty of 
the worst crime which man can commit against man, 
that of destroying the faith which ought to be pre- 
served, even between enemies ; and thus undermining, 
far more fatally than any revolution, the very frame- 
work of society. 



208 AUSTRIA. 

In revenge for the murder of Lis commissioner, the 
Emperor issued a manifesto on the 3d of October, dis- 
solving the Hungarian Diet, putting Hungary under 
martial law, and appointing Jellachich Commissary- 
general for the whole kingdom, with unlimited power, 
civil and military. The Diet on its part replied to this 
manifesto, by declaring itself in permanence as a consti- 
tuent assembly. It appointed a committee of public 
safety, under the dictatorship of Kossuth ; and the war- 
like Magyare devoted their whole energies to the de- 
fence of their capital. Every man took up arms, and 
even ladies of rank worked in the trenches, 

Pesth, the new capital of Hungary, on the left bank 
of the Danube, and Buda, the old residence of the 
Turkish pachas, on the opposite side of the river, are 
united by a bridge of boats, and form together a city 
of about a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. 
Jellachich's march had been too rapid to allow of his 
bringing up his heavy artillery, without which he could 
not effectually lay siege to Buda, built as it was on a 
rock, and defended by an intrepid and desperate popu- 
lation. He remained, therefore, some days at Stuhl- 
weissenburg, waiting apparently for reinforcements from 
Vienna. While he was in this position, he was attacked 
by an irregular force led by Meszaros, the Hungarian 
Minister of War, and a portion of his cavalry suffered 
severely. It was after this engagement that the brothers 
Zechy, cousins of the Princess Metternich, were hanged 
as traitors in the Hungarian camp. They are said to 
have been convicted of entertaining a secret cor- 
respondence with the Ban, and with the Archduchess 
Sophia. 

After his partial defeat at Stuhlweissenburg, the 
Ban withdrew westwards to Raab and Comorn, in 
which positions he could command the Danube and the 
road from Vienna to Buda, and effect his junction with 
the troops he expected from Vienna. This movement 



VIENNA SYMPATHIZES WITH HUNGARY. 209 

was very differently interpreted by the Magyars and 
the Viennese ; the former, flushed with success, affirmed 
that their enemy was routed, that his retreat to Croatia 
was cut off, and that he was flying in disorder to seek 
shelter in the mountains of Styria ; the Viennese, on 
the other hand, supposed with every appearance of 
probability, that the Ban was not so much intent on 
fighting the Magyars as in marching a force upon the 
metropolis to back the court in their reactionary projects 
against the constitution. The cause of Pesth became 
the cause of Vienna; the people loudly murmured 
against the despatch of troops to coerce the Magyars, 
and demanded the revocation of the decree appointing 
Jellachich commissary-general of Hungary. 



210 AUSTRIA. 



CHAPTER XI. 

AUSTRIA. 

INSURRECTION AND BOMBARDMENT OF VIENNA. 

On the morning of October 6th, the German Grena- 
diers, a regiment favorable to the popular cause, re- 
ceived orders to march and join the expedition against 
the Hungarians. Having been forewarned of these 
orders, the Grenadiers had communicated with the 
National Guards of the suburb in which their barracks 
are situated, and with the Academical Legion, both 
which corps promised that measures would be taken to 
prevent their departure. 

Parties of the confederates went stealthily by night 
and broke up the railway to some distance from the 
station, whilst others erected a barricade on the Tabor- 
bridge, which the battalions would have to cross in or- 
der to reach the next station. The Grenadiers were 
ordered to storm the barricade, but instead of doing so, 
they went over and joined the National Guards and the 
Academical Legion, now assembled behind it in con- 
siderable force. Cavalry, infantry, and artillery, were 
brought against the insurgents, but were completely 
routed by the latter, who then marched into the town. 
The conflict became general, and the Government 
troops were everywhere defeated. Between five and 
six o'clock, the Nationals took the War-office by storm. 
Count Latour, the Minister of War, was found concealed 
in a wooden box on the fourth story. He was dragged 



INSURRECTION OF VIENNA. 211 

out and most cruelly murdered. The mutilated body 
was thrown out of the window, stripped naked, and 
hung on a lamp-post, where it remained for a whole 
day, the mob slashing it with sabres and riddling it 
with balls. The unfortunate man had been waited 
upon the night before by a deputation, and urgently 
cautioned against sending away the Deutschmeister 
Grenadiers, as a disturbance would be sure to take place. 
His reply was, "A disturbance was the very thing he 
wanted ; and he had only waited this opportunity to 
proclaim martial law in Vienna." 

Some portion of the troops and of the National 
Guards who sided with the Government still held out 
in the Arsenal, whence they poured grape and canister 
on their besiegers. These, at last, had recourse in the 
middle of the night to Congreve rockets, for the purpose 
of setting the building on fire. The besieged were seen 
coming in shoals upon the roof, vainly endeavoring to 
escape over the adjoining houses. It is impossible to 
say how many were suffocated by the smoke, or perished 
in the flames. The remainder surrendered on the 
morning of the 7th and were imprisoned, and about 
100,000 muskets fell into the hands of the citizens. 
The people might have now proclaimed any form of 
Government, but during the whole fight not a single 
cry for a republic was heard. On the 8th Vienna was 
comparatively quiet, the military having wholly evacu- 
ated the town. 

In the midst of these scenes the Diet assembled on 
the 6th, and elected Smolka president in place of 
Strobach, who had refused to convoke the deputies. 
The Diet declared its sitting permanent, and elected a 
Committee of Safety, whose "decrees should be signed 
by the Minister Hornbostel. A deputation was also 
appointed to carry an address to the Emperor, de- 
manding the formation of a new and popular cabinet, 
including DoblhofT and Hornbostel; the removal of 



212 AU. STRIA. 

the Ban Jellachich from his governorship of Hungary ; 
the revocation of the last proclamation against the 
Hungarians ; and an amnesty for those implicated in 
the riots of that day. 

The Emperor returned an evasive answer, and left 
Vienna at four o'clock a.m. on the 7th, with the other 
members of the Imperial family, leaving behind him a 
sealed proclamation, which the Minister Kraus read 
the same morning to the Diet. In this document the 
Emperor said he had done all that a sovereign could 
do ; he had renounced the unlimited power he had 
received from his forefathers ; he had been obliged in 
May last to leave the castle of his late father ; he had 
come back without any guarantee, and in full confidence, 
to his people. A small but audacious party, however, 
had gone to extremes in Vienna ; murder and rapine 
had prevailed in that city, and the Minister of War 
had been assassinated. He trusted in God and his 
own good right, and he now left the vicinity of his 
capital in order to find means to bring aid to his 
oppressed people. Kraus added, that he had refused 
to countersign this unconstitutional and threatenino- 
proclamation. 

The Diet now assumed to itself executive as well as 
deliberative powers, and began, along with the three 
ministers, to act as a Provisional Government, still 
carefully observing all constitutional forms, and using 
the Emperor's name to counteract the Emperor's un- 
constitutional measures. Deputations were sent one 
after the other to invite the monarch to return, under 
the implied peril of forfeiting his throne. Count 
Auersperg, who was outside Vienna with 20,000 men, 
was called upon to come and aid in maintaining order 
within the walls ; that is, in reality, to surrender him- 
self to the force of the Diet. This he declined, on the 
plea that he could only act under the instructions of 
the Minister of War : the orders of the late minister, 



SECOND FLIGHT OF THE EMPEROR. 213 

the murdered Latour, did not allow him to enter Vien- 
na, but he would obey a new Minister of War so soon 
as any should be duly appointed. The Diet succeeded 
no better with Jellachich, who was approaching with 
his Croats. Summoned to retire, he replied bluntly 
that he was the Emperor's officer, commanding the 
Emperor's forces, and that he awaited the Imperial 
orders. The Diet then turned to Jellachich's enemy 
Kossuth, to request the aid of his Hungarians ; and 
his majesty's rebels, invited by his majesty's ministers, 
returned a fallacious promise, that they would invade 
the metropolitan province and clear it of his majesty's 
forces. 

At war with his German and Hungarian subjects, 
the Emperor threw himself into the arms of his be- 
loved Slavonians, to whom he had given such touch- 
ing marks of his paternal affection in the bombardment 
of Prague. He arrived at Olmutz in Moravia on the 
14th. Here he found a minister, M. Wessenberg, to 
countersign his proclamations ; and strong in the 
support offered by the Slavonians to their anti- 
German and anti-Magyar Emperor, he threw off all 
disguise, and after returning evasive answers to the 
importunate messengers from Vienna, after refusing to 
accept the resignations of the ministers in that city, he 
declared open war against the rebels. They were to 
be put down by armed force, and the murderers of his 
faithful servants Lamberg and Latour should be handed 
over to avenging justice. To this end he appointed 
Prince Windischgratz commander-in-chief of all his 
forces, except those under Radetski in Italy, and he 
gave the prince full power to do all things " according 
to his judgment within the shortest time." 

The Emperor's manifesto, fulminated on the 16th, 
followed close upon the defection of the recreant 
Hungarians, who had retired within their own frontier, 
and left their unfortunate allies of Vienna to their fate, 



214 AUSTRIA. 

In the House of Representatives at Pesth, on the 14th 
of September, Kossuth announced the withdrawal of 
his army, and professed to state the cause. He avowed 
his gratitude for the sentiments expressed by the 
citizens of Vienna, but regretted that " no official 
declaration had come from that quarter." As an 
advance would under such circumstances have been an 
invasion, he withdrew his army, and he should look 
only to defending his fatherland. This pretended ex- 
planation explains nothing; the only intelligible reasons 
that have been suggested for the apparent bad faith 
of the Hungarians on this occasion are purely conjec- 
tural, such as that they may have yielded to Auers- 
perg's promises, or to the threats of Russia, that if 
they advanced upon Vienna she would interpose. 

The conduct of the Slavonians was far more consis- 
tent with their former professions, and with their 
avowed policy. Immediately after the outbreak in 
Vienna, some thirty Bohemian members of the Aus- 
trian Diet assembled in Prague, and in conjunction 
with the municipal authorities took counsel for uphold- 
ing the interests of the kingdom of Bohemia. Palacky, 
the learned leader of the Tchechs, denounced the 
recent revolution in Vienna, and the proceedings of 
the Magyars ; commended the loyalty of Jellachich ; 
and declared that the throne and the dynasty could be 
upheld only by the northern and southern Slavonians. 
Palacky and another deputy went subsequently to 
Olmutz, and laid before the Emperor a declaration of 
all the Bohemian members, to the effect that it was 
their determination not to return to Vienna, and that 
they would not be answerable for anything that might 
happen in Bohemia, should the Emperor refuse to 
transfer the seat of the Diet to another city. His 
majesty received the deputation graciously, and referred 
them to a proclamation lie had signed on the 20th, 
decreeing the removal of the Austrian Diet to the 



LETTER OF JELLACHICH. 215 

small town of Kremsier, in Moravia, and summoning 
all its members to meet there on the 15th of Novem- 
ber, in order to proceed with the mighty work of per- 
fecting the Constitution. * 

About the same time the following letter, addressed 
by the Ban Jellachich to his " Slavonic brethren in Bo- 
hemia," was read with acclamations in the Slovanska 
Lipa (Slavonic Union) of Prague : — 

" Beloved Companions and dear Brethren, — My con- 
duct up to this day shows what I aim at and what I 
desire. Inspired as I am with affection for Slavism, I 
am no less persuaded in my inmost heart that Slavism 
is the strongest prop of Austria ; but that Austria also 
is an unavoidable condition for the integrity of Slavism, 
so that ' if there were no Austria we should have to 
create one.' There certainly is not one sensible man 
who does not know that the existence of Austria is 
most intimately connected with that of Slavism. There- 
fore it was my duty, as a faithful and sincere Slavonian, 
to oppose in Pesth the anti-Austrian party which rose 
in hostility against Slavism. 

" But as I approached Pesth, that nest of the Mag- 
yar aristocracy, our common enemies arose ; and had 
they conquered in Vienna, my victory in Pesth would 
have been incomplete, and the mainstay of our enemies 
would have been Vienna. 

" Therefore I turned with my whole army against 
Vienna, in order to chastise the enemies of Slavism in 
Austria's capital. Inexpressibly great was my joy when 
I saw that my brethren in Bohemia, led by the same 
conviction, still further strengthened by the departure 
of the delegates, carried their victorious banners before 
Vienna, for the purpose of offering me and my army 
the right hand of fellowship, and of thus conquering 
as heroes or dying with honor. 

" I was led solely by the conviction that I was 
approaching Vienna against the enemy of Slavism; 



216 AUSTRIA. 

and I cherish the hope that you not only under- 
stand ray actions, but will support them. Receive 
my greeting. 

"Given at the head-quarters of the Croatic-Sla- 
vonian army at Zwolfaxingen. 

" Jellachich, Ban, 

"Oct. 22, 1848.' ? 

Windischgratz had now arrived before Vienna, and 
invested it with an army of some 100,000 men and 140 
guns. Some days were spent in negotiation, both par- 
ties at the same time preparing for action. Messenhau- 
ser, the commander-in-chief of the National Guard, and 
General Behm, who acted under him, put the city in 
as good a position for defence as possible, and the po- 
pulation were perfectly ready for fighting. 

The attack began on the morning of the 28 th, and 
by evening all the northern and eastern suburbs were 
occupied. Next morning the southern suburbs were 
attacked, and from the interior of the city a column of 
smoke issued, as a signal of distress, calling upon the 
Hungarians for help. The Hungarian vanguard did 
indeed show itself, but, without making any attack, 
withdrew immediately again to Briick. The Viennese 
now sent a deputation to Windischgratz with propo- 
sals of surrender. The prince refused to abate his 
previous demand for disarming the working-men and 
the students, but agreed to suspend hostilities for 
twelve hours, while the besieged held a last delibera- 
tion. 

The deputation returned and summoned a meeting 
of the town-council, which was attended by Messen- 
hauser, the commander of the Academic Legion, and 
some members of the Diet. Messenhauser declared 
that he and the officers under him were ready to hold 
out if the council decided to do so ; but the situation 
was nearly desperate. The troops were in possession 



BOMBARDMENT OF VIENNA. 2lV 

of the suburbs to the foot of the glacis, and the walls were 
incapable of general defence against escalade. On the 
question being put to the vote, it was resolved by three- 
fourths of the town-councillors that the defence should 
cease. Messenhauser and his National Guards, with 
the chiefs of the students, set about carrying this reso- 
lution into effect ; and it was announced to Prince 
Windischgratz. A disarming had actually commenced 
on the 30th ; but the sentinels on St. Stephen's then 
announced that the Hungarians were advancing in full 
march from Briick, and were driving in the outposts of 
the besiegers. General Behm, the commander of the 
workmen, who formed the largest body of the defenders, 
had protested against the surrender agreed on the day 
before, and he and they seized on the announcement of 
the Hungarian advance to renew the conflict. This 
was done on all sides, with greater activity than ever, 
and even with some partial successes ; but after the 
first surprise the Imperial troops drove the workmen 
back, and resumed all their advantageous positions. 

On the 31st, the Municipal Council endeavored again 
to carry out the stipulations of the 29th. White flags 
of surrender were hung out on the bastions and from 
the houses ; the Imperial troops advanced, but a slaugh- 
tering fire was opened upon them. This so exasper- 
ated Prince Windischgratz that he ordered a bombard- 
ment of the city and an attack by storm on three of 
the south and south-eastern gates. The library in the 
castle, several public buildings, and two churches, were 
set on fire. The Burg Thor was carried by the troops, 
and a short but bloody fight began in the streets. The 
defenders being still, as on the 29th and 30th, divided 
amongst themselves — some only of them for fighting, 
more for yielding — the success of the besiegers was 
rapid; and before midnight of the 31st the greater 
portion of the capital was subdued. On the 1st in- 
10 



218 AUSTRIA. 

staqt, the contest was still continued at detached points 
by a body of workmen and students ; and the most 
north-westerly parts of the city were not mastered till 
dawn of the 2d. These last frantic conflicts were 
waged between some students and Croats; some of 
the former were thrown alive from the tops of the lofti- 
est houses, and hardly any received quarter. The fire 
in the palace was extinguished without much injury to 
the books or archives ; but the church of the Augustins 
was destroyed. On the 2d, the submission of the 
whole city was complete. All the gates were closed ; all 
communication with the suburbs was prevented. Prince 
Windischgratz proclaimed, that in consequence of the 
breach of capitulation, the conditions which he had at 
first agreed to were null and void ; and the Academic 
Legion was for ever dissolved, and the National Guard 
disbanded for an unlimited time. All newspapers and 
political associations were suspended ; all assemblages 
of more than ten persons forbidden ; and a strict search 
was ordered for concealed arms. 

To the last inexplicable in their movements and their 
motives, the Hungarians did actually cross 'the Leitha 
on the 30th October, and made a show of fighting for 
the Viennese. Jellachich was despatched to drive them 
off, and he seems to have done so at a blow ; a facility 
strangely at variance with the boasted uniformity of 
success attending the Magyars in their wars against the 
Slavonians. 

The number killed on both sides in the storming of 
the Austrian capital is estimated at about 2,500 ; the 
damage sustained by fire and pillage at about a million 
and a half sterling. The victory of the Imperialists, 
cruelly won, was infamously used. The horrors of the 
storming were greatly aggravated by letting loose those 
lawless savages, the Croat soldiers, to plunder, burn, 
murder, and ravish. In a letter, written at Vienna on 



SACKING OF VIENNA. 219 

the 1st of November, the writer says : — " The victory 
of the troops has been abused in the most inhuman 
manner. Instead of making prisoners of all who were 
found in arms, but who offered no resistance, and de- 
livering- them over for trial by courts-martial or other- 
wise, they were butchered singly without mercy ; and 
this not alone by the privates without orders, even 
officers boast of having given commands to that effect. 
An officer of the National Guards surprised by the 
military, and seeing his retreat cut off, called out 
• Quarter !' but was shot on the spot. Persons in the 
streets in the evening were called to by the patrols to 
stand ; some in their terror endeavored to get out of 
the way, and were immediately fired upon. I myself 
witnessed the death of two individuals who fell pierced 
with balls. But the emperor's troops have not alone 
massacred — they have pillaged, and, as it would seem, 
with full permission, no steps being taken by the offi- 
cers to prevent it. At first I would not believe the 
iact, but have since seen grenadiers encamped in the 
hotel in which I am lodging, taking watches, gold-lace, 
and fine articles of clothing, out of their bread-sacks, so 
that the truth exhibited itself in all its nakedness to my 
eyes. You often see parties of tinkers strolling about 
the country to mend pots and pans ; they come out of 
the Carpathian mountains ; now fancy two hundred 
and fifty such fellows with muskets in their hands and 
a great leather sack on their backs for a knapsack, 
and you have a company of Croatian soldiers of the 
kind which Windischgratz has let loose in masses on 
the city." 

As military occupant of Vienna, Windischgratz 
exercised the powers of martial law with a vindictive- 
ness no less impolitic than ruthless. Daily, for more 
than a week, the courts-martial and the imperial execu- 
tioners were busy condemning, hanging, and shooting 
prisoners, with a secresy more becoming conscious 



220 AUSTRIA. 

murderers than ministers of justice.* It seemed as 
though Austria was resolved not to let those who used 
to tremble at the name of Spielberg, suppose that Aus- 
trian domination had changed its nature in becoming 
nominally constitutional. The republican Government 
of France showed mercy to the political prisoners in its 
hands, and spared from death even its unyielding 
antagonists in battle. The monarchical Government of 
Austria no sooner regained for a time a little of its 
power, than it again resorted to the cruel conduct which 
had long made it not only feared but hated. Among 
the many executions ordered by Windischgratz, two 
especially excited universal disgust. 

Messenhauser, the brave commander of the National 
Guard, was shot, — an iniquitous act, which cannot be 
excused even on the poor plea of expediency. Imperial 
vengeance should have been restrained by the thought 
that the civil war had been solely provoked by gross 
Imperial treachery. A Government that had such need 
of forgiveness would have acted wisely in forgiving. 
But Messenhauser was shot as a traitor ; and a chief 
instrument in bringing him to that fate was Jellachich, 
a man who had been declared a traitor in May, and 
who very soon afterwards, without any atonement or 
change of conduct on his part, had been named Com- 
mander-in-chief and Governor of Hungary. 

Robert Blum of Leipsic, and Frobel, his companion 
and colleague in the Frankfort Assembly, were both 
sentenced to death. Frobel survives, and his story 
strongly inculpates Windischgratz, who seems to have 
picked out the two senators from among the crowd that- 
defended Vienna in order to treat them with especial 
severity. Frobel was pardoned on the score of " ex- 
tenuating circumstances ;" a conflict of harshness and 

* It has been said, that the?e alleged cruelties were greatly 
exaggerated, for that, in fact, only three executions took place 
for high treason. A most pitiful quibble ! 



EXECUTION OF ROBERT BLUM. 221 

leniency which indicates vacillating councils, and im- 
parts a still darker aspect to the bad deed of shooting 
Blum. He should have been kept in custody, and 
handed over to the proper tribunal at Frankfort. To 
inflict a military sentence on a German senator, a man 
not fairly within Viennese jurisdiction, was either a 
savage blunder or a wilful act of scorn and defiance cast 
upon the Imperial legislature at Frankfort. The latter 
supposition is probably the true one ; for Austria has 
scarcely ever condescended to disguise her antipathy to 
the phantom empire of Germany. If it was her inten- 
tion to outrage that feeble apparition, she knew that 
she could do so with impunity. The Assembly at 
Frankfort did indeed evince its just indignation in very 
strong language ; but it could do no more. The whole 
body rose and affirmed the following motion by unani- 
mous acclamation, including the suffrages of the minis- 
ters Schmerlmg, an Austrian, Mohl, and Bekerath : — 

" The National Assembly, solemnly protesting before 
all Germany against the arrest and execution of Robert 
Blum, which acts were consummated in total disregard 
of the imperial law of 30th September ultimo, calls 
upon the Imperial Ministry to adopt the most strenu- 
ous measures for calling those parties to account who, 
either directly or indirectly, bear the guilt of the offence, 
and for securing their punishment." 

Brave words, but nothing more ! Commissioners 
were sent to Vienna, a show of inquiry was made, and 
the matter was hushed up. 

The severities exercised against Vienna were such as 
to produce a revulsion of feeling even in Bohemia, and 
the Slavonic deputies, with Strobach and Palacky at 
their head, strongly protested against Windischgratz's 
barbarities. On the other hand the Emperor Nicholas 
manifested his approval of the conduct of both the 
Austrian commanders, thereby ostentatiously marking 
his own position in the politics of Europe. To Win- 



222 AUSTRIA. 

dischgratz lie sent the grand cross of St. Andrew, for 
coercing Vienna; he had sent him no such tribute 
when the prince signalized the reduction of Prague by 
a magnanimous and merciful oblivion of the injuries 
inflicted on his own household : but Prague is a Slavo- 
nic city. The grand cross of St. Wladimir was bestowed 
on the Ban of Croatia, the scourge of Hungary, and 
leader of those Slavonic races whom Russia desires to 
absorb. 



AUSTRIA. 223 



CHAPTER XII. 
AUSTRIA. 

ABDICATION OF THE EMPEROR FERDINAND PRINCIPLES OF THE 

NEW ADMINISTRATION INVASION OF HUNGARY BY THE IMPE- 
RIAL FORCES. 

After the inexorable Windischgratz had done his 
bloody work, the Imperial Government entered upon a 
conciliatory course towards all but the refractory Hun- 
garians, who were sharply admonished against lending 
themselves to the " impertinent intrigues " of the traitor 
Louis Kossuth. A new Ministry was formed, as fol- 
lows : — Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, Premier and Fo- 
reign Minister ; Count Francis Stadion, Interior ; Baron 
Kraus, Finance ; General . Cordon, War ; Dr. Bach, 
Justice ; Rhinnfield, Worship ; Bruck, Commerce and 
Public Works ; Thienfeld, Agriculture. Count Stadion 
stipulated that certain State Councillors, and some 
other instruments of Metternich, should be dismissed. 

The Diet assembled at Kremsier on the 2 2d of No- 
vember, and was formally opened in the Cathedral 
Church. Nearly all the members were present. On 
the 27th the Premier delivered a speech, declaring the 
principles on which he and his colleagues proposed to 
act in their government. So far as we may judge from 
that manifesto, the statesmen who have subscribed to 
it were honestly and judiciously intent on consolidating 
the liberties acquired by the Revolution of March. 
Resolved to vindicate that authority in the Executive, 



224 AUSTRIA. 

without which no Government can exist, they disclaim 
all reactionary intentions, and, instead of endeavoring 
to re-establish the Austria of 1815, they seek to deve- 
lope a new Austria, suited to the altered state of Europe. 
This is to be effected by organizing a true representation 
of the people, on the basis of free institutions and local 
self-government, with a vigorous central administration. 
Such a constitution of the empire would be the very 
opposite to that which existed down to 1848 ; that was 
a centralized bureaucracy, ruling over provinces kept in 
a state of subjection, separation, and mutual ignorance : 
the new plan was a popular machinery of government 
and a federalized consolidation. 

To give more vigor to the prosecution of the grand 
work proposed in the ministerial programme, and also 
to inspire the sore-tried subjects of the Austrian Crown 
with fresh hope and confidence, it was deemed requisite 
to hold out some token of renovation more signal and 
impressive than a mere change of ministry. The honor 
of the Imperial name had been sullied past all cure in 
the person of Ferdinand. Not all the superstitious 
attachment of the Austrians to their sovereign could 
long countervail their just indignation and disgust at 
the deeds done in his name by the irresponsible keepers 
of the idiot monarch. A project, therefore, which had 
been openly discussed in May, after the flight to 
Inspruck, was now carried into effect, and on the 2d of 
December the Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the Aus- 
trian throne; Francis Charles, his next brother and 
legal heir, renounced the succession; and Francis 
Joseph, a young man only in his nineteenth year, and 
son of the renouncing Archduke, was proclaimed 
Emperor of Austria, &c, by the name of Francis Joseph 
the First. 

The transfer of the crown relieved the subjects of 
Austria, not only of an imbecile emperor, but also of 
the camarilla that had made him their stalking-horse 



THE NEW EMPERORS MANIFESTO. 225 

for the perpetration of such incalculable mischief. The 
Princess Sophia, wife of the Archduke Francis Charles, 
over whom she rules, was the leading spirit of the 
camarilla, and generally regarded as the heart and soul 
of the Metternich party. To have placed the crown on 
her husband's head would have been tantamount to a 
restoration of absolute monarchy ; whereas the election 
of the Princess's son was accepted as a public and un- 
equivocal announcement of her defeat. The whole 
family circle was immediately broken up : the ex- 
Emperor and his consort departed for Prague ; the 
Archduchess Sophia and the Archduke Francis Charles 
for Munich ; and the Archduke Ferdinand D'Este for 
Berlin and Dresden. The young Emperor's inaugural 
proclamation is a state paper of high interest : — 

" We, Francis Joseph I., by the grace of God Emperor 
of Austria, <fcc. 

" By the resignation of our beloved uncle, the Em- 
peror and King Ferdinand the First, in Hungary and 
Bohemia of that name the Eighth, and by the resigna- 
tion of our beloved father, the Lord Archduke Francis 
Charles, and summoned on the strength of the Prag- 
matic Sanction to assume the crown of this empire, 
proclaim hereby solemnly to our people the fact of our 
ascension to the throne, under the name of Francis 
Joseph the First. 

" We are convinced of the necessity and the value of 
free institutions, and enter with confidence on the path 
of a prosperous reformation of the monarchy. 

" On the basis of true liberty, on the basis of the 
equality of rights of all our people, and the equality of 
all citizens before the law, and on the basis of their 
equally partaking in the representation and legislation, 
the country will rise to its ancient grandeur ; it will 
acquire new strength to resist the storms of the time ; 
it will be a hall to shelter the tribes of many tongues 
united under the sceptre of our fathers. 
p 10* 



226 AUSTRIA. 

" Jealous of the glory of the crown, and resolved to 
preserve the monarchy uncurtailed, but ready to share 
our privilege with the representatives of our people, we 
hope, by the assistance of God and the co-operation of 
our people, to succeed in uniting all the countries and 
tribes of the monarchy into one integral state. We 
have had severe trials ; tranquillity and order have been 
disturbed in many parts of the empire. A civil war is 
even now raging in one part of the monarchy. Pre- 
parations have been made to restore legal order every- 
where. The conquest over rebellion and the return of 
domestic peace are the first conditions to the great 
work which we now take in hand. 

" In this we rely confidently on the sensible and 
candid co-operation of the nation by its representatives. 

" We rely on the sound sense of the loyal inhabitants 
of the country, whom the new laws on the abolition of 
servitude and imposts have admitted to a full enjoy- 
ment of civil rights. 

" We rely on the loyal servants of the state. 

" We expect our glorious army will persevere in their 
ancient fidelity and bravery. They will continue to be 
a pillar of the throne, and a bulwark to the country and 
its free institutions. 

" We shall be happy to reward merit, without any 
distinction of birth or station. 

" People of Austria ! it is an awful time in which we 
mount the throne of our fathers. " Great are the duties 
of our office, great is its responsibility. May God 
protect us. 

" Francis Joseph, 
" schwarzenberg. 

" Olmiitz, December 5, 1848." 

Notwithstanding the enlightened \iews and appa- 
rently upright intentions of the new authorities, they 
could not at once win the affections of the country. 



INVETERATE BAD HABITS OF GOVERNMENT. 227 

Suspicion had grown inveterate in the minds of the 
Austrians through long acquaintance with bad govern- 
ment. Besides this, the Administration was, of course, 
obliged to employ a host of functionaries, trained and 
hardened in the practices of the Metternich school; 
and these men could not soon forget their old ways. 
To these two causes we may, in fairness, attribute a 
belief strongly entertained by the people, that the new 
Government was engaged in a low intrigue to re-es- 
tablish the old despotic system. " I cannot believe 
they are right," says the Viennese correspondent of 
The Times, " but I do wish Austrian Governments — 
no matter whether represented by Pillersdorf, or Dobl- 
hof, or Wessenberg, or Schwarzenberg — would conde- 
scend to act with candor. It is but natural that a 
thousand abuses cannot be put down in a few weeks ; 
where so much is to re-make, the most necessary re- 
forms must be put off to a more convenient time. But 
they ought to eschew sleights of hand. I grieve to 
see that the rulers of this country are still given to 
trickery. I mentioned in' a former letter the case of 
flogging in the army. That punishment has been 
abolished by law, and yet the soldiers are as much 
beaten as they ever were. The law of abolition was 
made for the public j>apers only. Another grievance, 
perhaps an imagiuary one, was the ' Theresianum,' a 
kind of charity-school for young aristocrats. The Go- 
vernment lately abolished this Theresianum. The 
Wiener Zeitung was very eloquent on the liberality of 
that measure, and the great good it would do to the 
public. But, while people congratulated each other on 
this momentous improvement, the Theresianum was 
quietly re-opened. Cunning like this is akin to that 
of the ostrich." « 

The good people of Vienna fondly expected, for their 
own share in the graces and bounties of the new reign, 
the immediate removal of the state of siege, and the 



228 AUSTRIA. 

arrival of their young Emperor in the ancient capital 
of his dynasty. But they were doomed to disappoint- 
ment in both respects. The Emperor continued to re- 
side at Olmiitz ; and as for the state of siege, it could 
only cease to exist with the rebellion in Hungary. The 
Imperial army could not afford to leave unrestrained in 
its rear a city of doubtful and even hostile sentiments, 
whilst about to engage in a war which was likely to 
be both protracted and bloody. 

Hungary was the only portion of the empire to 
which the advent of the new monarch brought no 
hopeful prospects. While to some provinces was 
vouchsafed a continuance of that peculiar favor they 
had for some time enjoyed, and while, in other pro- 
vinces, coercive measures were suspended or mitigated, 
Hungary was threatened with an invading army, and 
her leading men were denounced as traitors. Prague 
had been coerced, so had Vienna, so had Lombardy ; 
but the rough measures inflicted on them belonged to 
the bygone reign : it was to Hungary alone that the 
new Emperor presented an ' adverse front. Her lead- 
ing men, therefore, were driven to desperate extremi- 
ties. Their only hope lay in the renewal of the Impe- 
rial anarchy ; in the re-establishment of the Imperial 
authority they beheld their own destruction. Branded 
as rebels and traitors, they retorted by denouncing the 
young monarch as a usurper. The Parliament of 
Hungary resolved, that, as regarded that kingdom, 
" the family abdications and the shiftings of right which 
took place at Olm utz on the 2d of December" were 
null and void, inasmuch as any such arrangements 
" could have no effect on the royal throne of Hungary 
unless the Hungarian Parliament were consulted and 
had given its cogent." Whoever, therefore, claimed 
royal jurisdiction in Hungary, without having been 
first acknowledged by the Law, the Constitution, and 
the Parliament, was to be resisted as an usurper, and 



HUNGARY IN REBELLION. 229 

those who neglected that duty should be liable to pro- 
secution for high treason against the country. 

The constitutional law, thus laid down, was admitted 
to be correct ; the Imperialists themselves owned that 
a change in the Hungarian succession requires the con- 
sent of the nation, and they doubted not but that, 
at the proper season, that assent would be solicited, 
but they denied that the body calling itself the Hun- 
garian Parliament had any right to that designa- 
tion. It had been dissolved by the Emperor, King 
Ferdinand, in the exercise of his unquestionable prero- 
gative, and it existed only as an illegal and revolution- 
ary assembly. 

Vast preparations were now made on both sides for 
what seemed likely, from the mutual acrimony of the 
belligerents, to prove a war of extermination. Two 
months were spent by the Imperial generals in collect- 
ing troops from all corners of the empire, and inclos- 
ing Hungary within a ring-fence of bayonets and can- 
non. The campaign then began after the fashion of 
those great sporting battues, in which every head of 
game in a large district is driven in before a continually 
narrowing circle of hunters. The main army of invasion 
marched eastward from Austria in three divisions, under 
Jellachich, Simonich, and Serbelloni ; Windischgratz re- 
taining the general command. From the Gallician fron- 
tier, General Schlich directed his march due south to- 
wards the heart of the kingdom. Nearly opposite him 
was the force advancing under Dahlen from the Uly- 
rian provinces ; while Puchner, Urban, and Wardener, 
who had already put down the insurrection in Transyl- 
vania, were pressing upon the eastern frontier. The 
opening of the campaign is thus described under the 
date of Vienna, December 21 : 

" It would seem that Prince Windischgratz wishes 
to make up for lost time. He has been marching his 
troops and carrying his stores for seven long weeks. 



230 AUSTRIA. 

He gave the fanatic Magyars nearly two months' time 
to ponder on the fall of Vienna and to beware of a 
like curse, to make their country impassable, and to 
drill the savage hordes of their Landsturm into some- 
thing like order. Six weeks is the time usually allowed 
for the breaking in of a recruit. Prince Windischgratz 
has been generous : he granted the Magyars an extra 
week to give the tyros the finish. They seem to have 
profited by it. It is true the serene Commander-in- 
chief had no sooner appeared among the armies sta- 
tioned alonu the Hungarian frontier than he led his 
troops boldly on, carrying everything before him. The 
campaign had a glorious opening. Oedenburg was 
taken on the first day, Tyrnau on the second, and Pres- 
burg on the third. The Imperialists advanced at double 
quick time ; the Magyars made a running fight of it : 
they took up positions merely in order to leave them 
when attacked ; the prisoners whom the Imperialists 
took were Marodeurs, that could not keep up with the 
quickness of the retreat, and the five guns which the 
former captured had their carriages broken. Presburg 
itself was taken in the most amicable manner. The 
Magyars left by one gate while the Imperial troops en- 
tered by another. 

" Details like these characterize the campaign. After 
all their boasting, the Magyars were bad fighters in the 
course of this summer, but they were not so bad as to 
disarm my suspicion of a deep plan being at the bottom 
of this hasty retreat. The Magyars have adopted that 
mode of fighting which agrees best with their origin 
and the nature of their country — to wit, the Parthian : 
they retire as the enemy advances ; they rather obstruct 
his progress than oppose it; they call in want, fever, 
and cold, to assist them ; and surely these must make 
more havoc than the sabres of the Szeklers ever can do. 
The Imperial armies have to make their way through 
deserted tracts of country ; the bridges being brokeia 



CAMPAIGN IN HUNGARY. 231 

down, they must ford the rivers, or halt until other 
bridges have been constructed. If they wish to take 
their commissariat and stores along with them, their 
march must be tedious and slow beyond conception ; 
if, on the contrary, they push forward, they fall a prey 
to all the evils of a famine. Fancy them on their pro- 
gress through the inhospitable plains of inner Hungary, 
and, now that the winter has fairly set in, exposed to 
all the inclemencies of the season, unsheltered, unfed, 
and harassed by the light horse of a foe who ever 
attacks, and ever retreats from attack. . And fancy 
that foe, though perhaps not naturally of the bravest, 
yet urged to the most unremitting violence by the con- 
sciousness of crime and the anticipation of punishment. 
I have had occasion to talk to some people who lately 
came from Pesth, and who assure me that the inhabit- 
ants of the Hungarian capital are fully aware of what 
they have staked in the game, that their former misdo- 
ings compel them to resist to the last, and that they 
are resolved to do so. The just retribution which 
Prince Windischgratz has dealt on the malefactors of 
Vienna has there been amplified by rumor into deeds 
of most bloody revenge and cruelty. No matter whether 
true or not true, the people of Hungary believe that 
the Commander-in-ehief treated the Viennese most bar- 
barously; and the idea that his treatment of them 
would be b} r far harsher goads them into phrensy. In 
short, the Hungarians have gone so far that they can- 
not retrace their steps." 

Their cause was indeed desperate : the whole strength 
of the empire combined against them, all succor cut off 
from them, and their only hope of favorable interference 
from without dependent on the result of a mission they 
had sent to solicit the mediation of the British and 
French Governments. The Schwarzenberg Cabinet, 
secure of victory over the Hungarian rebellion, made 
Bo secret of their intention to profit by it, as Pitt did 



232 AUSTRIA. 

by the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The Wiener Zeitung 
is the acknowledged organ of the Austrian Government, 
and sentences like the following are of deep import 
when published by it : — 

u The Magyar tribe is now being thrown back upon 
its geographical territory, and the kingdom of Hungary, 
such as it has been, lies in its agonies after existing for 
a thousand years. Its history is ended ; its future be- 
longs to Austria." 

The sort of treatment that, in other respects, awaited 
the vanquished Hungarians may be inferred from the 
following proclamation of the Austrian Commander-in- 
chief; its savage cruelty confounds all distinctions of 
innocence and guilt : — 

Head-quarters, Nicola, 26th December, 1848. 
" Any inhabitant who is taken with a weapon of any 
description in his hand will be immediately hanged. 

" If the inhabitants of any place shall, united, dare 
to attack any Imperial royal military courier, any trans- 
ports, any or single commanding officers, or to injure 
them in any way soever, such place shall be made level 
with the earth. 

" The authorities of the different places shall answer 
with their heads for the preservation of the public peace. 
" Prince Windischgratz, 

" Field-Marshal."* 

* Shortly after the close of the year 1848, the whole of 
Hungary seemed to be de facto subdued. Raab was taken, 
and Windischgratz had entered Buda Pesth on the 5th of 
January at the head of his troops, without a shot being fired. 
Kossuth had retreated with 12,000 men to the Carpathian 
mountains. Frost and disease had considerably thinned the 
Imperial armies, but their force still appeared to be sufficient to 
crush all effectual opposition on the part of the Hungarians. 

But the spirit of that noble people rose the higher in propor- 
tion to the difficulties and perils which menaced them. A 
mere fragment of the Austrian empire, they struggled bravely 



NOTE. 233* 

against the imperial tyranny, strengthened as that was by the 
colossal power of Russia. During the present year (1849) the 
admiration of the world has been excited by the brilliant victo- 
ries which have attended the career of Kossuth and his heroic 
Magyars. Alas ! that a gloomy disaster has eclipsed the 
bright hopes inspired by their valor ! Gorgey, the Hungarian 
general, who had hitherto rivalled Kossuth in heroism, has at 
length despaired of their glorious cause. We instinctively re- 
pel the suspicion that he has been bought by Russian gold. 
We hope that it was not treachery, but that it was only a weak 
although benevolent desire to spare his country the horrors of a 
prolonged, and in his fear, a vain contest, that induced him to 
surrender his own army of 27,000 men, and, afterwards, when 
appointed to hold the reins of government relinquished by 
Kossuth, to recommend the nation to submit to its invaders. 
Whatever may have been his motive, his conduct has sealed 
the doom of Hungary. Kossuth, who could not yield, was 
forced to fly. The latest report is that, his wife and children 
being captured, he is on his way to England. 

Hungary now lies at the feet of his Imperial Majesty, the 
Czar of all the Russias. The Autocrat has aided the Austrian 
Emperor with fatal success, and the period predicted by Napo- 
leon, when "Europe will be Cossack," appears to be fast 
approaching. Alas for Hungary ! Alas for the cause of 
liberty on the European continent !. 



234 



CHAPTER XIII. 
PRUSSIA. 

FROM THE CONVOCATION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY TO ITS 
DISSOLUTION AND THE GRANT OF A CONSTITUTION. 

In accordance with the King's famous proclamation 
of the 18th of March, the Prussian Diet assembled for 
the last time on the 2d of April, only to pass a law for 
convoking a Constituent Assembly. Having fulfilled 
that duty, the fantastic imitation of a mediaeval institu- 
tion disappeared like a dream, and from a representa- 
tion of castes and classes Prussia rushed at once to 
universal suffrage. The Diet had no hold on public 
opinion ; its best merit was having placed in a conspi- 
cuous and national position such men as Camphausen, 
Beckerath, Dalilmann, and others, and produced a class 
of persons previously unheard of in Germany — leaders 
of a peaceful, patriotic opposition to an administration 
which scarcely admitted of any check from public 
opinion. 

But however defective may have been the constitu- 
tion of the short-lived Diet, it was incomparably superior 
in moral weight and in efficiency to the heterogeneous 
body that took its place towards the end of May. The 
great majority of the members returned to the Consti- 
tuent Assembly were men devoid of experience, of 
character, of ability, and even of common education. 
Called into existence at a most momentous crisis, its 
debates were poor, petty, and barren of all effect on 



INSURRECTION IN BERLIN. 235 

public opinion, and every day it sank deeper into dis- 
repute. It was capricious and hasty in its decisions, 
undoing one day what it had done the day before; 
and it was noisy, ill-tempered, and disorderly. To es- 
cape the charge of drawing its pay for nothing (each 
member received three dollars for every day he at- 
tended), it sat when it had nothing to do, and it created 
business from the same motive, whilst it neglected that 
for which it had been exclusively called into existence, 
namely, to arrange with the ministers of the Crown the 
plan of a constitution. A single specimen will suffice 
to show the trashy character of its debates. It occupied 
itself during two days, June 8th and 9th, in discussing 
a motion brought forward by Herr Behrend, that the 
Constituent Assembly should acknowledge the revolu- 
tion of the 18th and 19th of March, and declare its 
authors to merit well of their country. The motion 
was opposed by the ministry, who, without disavowing 
the consequences of the conflict, protested that it had 
not overturned the existing institutions of the land. A 
multitude of amendments were proposed, and the whole 
assembly plunged violently into a critical disquisition 
on the question, — Were the events of March a revolu- 
tion or only a transaction between the Crown and the 
people ? It was decided in favor of the transactionists 
by a majority of 196 to 177, to the horror and rage of 
the minority and their supporters out-of-doors. Some 
of the representatives, the minister Baron Arnim espe- 
cially, were assaulted as they left the Chamber, and 
narrowly escaped with life, 

A regular insurrection followed. The first exploit 
of the mob was to tear down the iron gates which had 
been set up a few days before on the Schlossplatz, in 
front of one of the two large courts round which the 
palace is built. The gates were strong and heavy, yet 
they were wrenched from their fastenings, a process 
that must have required immense force; the guard 



236 Prussia. 

on duty offered no resistance, and the gates were car 
ried in triumph to the university, and deposited in the 
hall. 

But this affair, which might, comparatively speaking, 
have passed for a venial frolic in a city given up to 
such perpetual turbulence and confusion, was but the 
prelude to a most alarming and disgraceful event. On 
the night of the 14th of June the arsenal was sacked 
and pillaged. It was between nine and ten when the 
mob first threatened the building. A battalion of the 
Burgher guard was on duty there ; some of them fired, 
killing and wounding five of the assailants, and putting 
the rest to flight. But a panic seized the majority of 
the civic soldiers ; they vehemently upbraided their 
comrades for what they had done, disarmed their com- 
manding officer, and marched off the ground. The 
mob, after drifting about without any definite object, 
soon after eleven o'clock appeared to have got a hint 
that the arsenal was abandoned. They collected round 
it again and resolved to storm it. For men, even with 
no armed resistance to encounter, this was no easy 
thing to do. The windows of the ground-floor are 
closed inside with heavy sh utters, lined with thick plate 
iron ; the doors are all equally strong. But a large beam 
of timber was procured, and was applied to the doors and 
windows in the manner of a battering-ram. Four win- 
dows withstood all the force applied to them ; a fifth 
gave way, and through it the crowd entered. All this 
while there were 250 regular troops within the build- 
ing, but they remained passive, for the officer in com- 
mand was told that the removal of the troops was the 
only mode of saving the monarchy from destruction, 
that all the rest of the army had left the city, and that 
the King had fled to Potsdam. The unfortunate cap- 
tain was weak enough to believe this story, and to vio- 
late the first of military duties in abandoning his post. 
Had he held out a little longer, almost all the mischief " 



THE ARSENAL PILLAGED. 237 

would have been prevented, for the last man of his 
company had scarcely quitted the arsenal before a re- 
inforcement arrived. His conduct, culpable as it was, 
found a party to defend it. A deputation from several 
of the clubs went to the War-office, and actually de- 
manded that the captain's refusal to defend his post 
should be recognised as a patriotic act deserving the 
thanks of the country. 

The half-hour that followed his departure cost the ' 
State 50,000 thalers, besides the loss of objects which 
no money could replace. The scene was a most 
shameful one ; the mob plundered, ravaged, and de- 
stroyed everything. New muskets were flung from 
the windows and broken ; antiquities of priceless value, 
arms inlaid with silver and ivory, rare models of artil- 
lery, were stolen or broken to pieces, — nay, the trophies 
won by the blood of the people, banners taken in the 
Seven Years' War, and in the latter campaigns against 
Napoleon, were torn to fragments and trampled in 
the mire. It was not so much the desire for arms 
as for plunder that led to this outrage, for many of 
the arms were soon afterwards sold for a few groschen 
apiece. 

The history of the Prussian capital during the eight 
months following the King's capitulation to the popu- 
lace on the 18th of March is that of a chronic state of 
riot, with paroxysms almost as frequent and regular as 
ague-fits. The middle classes were more demoralized 
and mob-ridden than those of Paris, the Burgher 
guard failed in every important emergency to perform 
their primary duty of maintaining order ; we have seen 
how, for the sake of peace and quiet, they marched off 
from the arsenal and let the plunderers have their 
way ; they did not even protect a minister from an inva- 
sion of a few hundred men, who stormed his office, 
broke open doors, and nad to be bought off for money. 
Severe monetary distress exasperated eveiy other evil. 



238 Prussia. 

Thousands of artisans, deprived of employment, swelled 
the malefactor class in a capital that has always from 
8,000 to 10,000 liberated convicts among its popula- 
tion, ready to take advantage of any confusion. A 
rapid succession of ministers passed through the pub- 
lic offices, some designated by the popular party, and 
some selected as faithful servants of the Crown, but 
none of them had strength to guide the Assembly or 
* courage to resist it, or personal influence enough to dis- 
arm the animosity of a populace they could neither 
serve nor feed. It was the King's weakness and folly 
that had let loose all these elements of confusion, and 
lest, haply, they should at. last siibside, he kept up the 
turmoil from time to time by some monstrous outbreak 
of personal indiscretion. Thus, for instance, so late as 
the middle of October, 1848, he talked in downright 
earnest of his divine right as no fiction, but a living 
truth. On the 15th, Frederick William IV. celebrated 
the anniversary of his birthday ; various congratula- 
tory deputations waited on him, but he received them 
with anything but gracious cordiality. To the deputa- 
tion from the Assembly he said, " Remember that I am 
still king ' by the grace of God,' and that the authori- 
ties which are instituted by God are alone able to main- 
tain law and order." 

At last a crisis arrived, and under the direction, pro- 
bably, of the more energetic members of the royal 
family, the King for once pursued a firm, temperate, 
and consistent course. A sufficient pretext for this 
change was found in a scene of more than ordinary 
violence which occurred in the Assembly on the 31st 
of October. A motion was brought forward by Herr 
Waldeck, for a resolution calling on the Government to 
employ all means and forces at the disposal of the 
State for the defence of the liberties of the people en- 
dangered at Vienna. A moo* of several thousands 
marched to the House to lend this motion the aid of 



DEPUTATION FROM THE ASSEMBLY TO THE KING. 239 

their pressure from without ; and many of them went 
prepared with cords with running nooses, hammers, 
and long nails or hooks, for the purpose of hanging 
certain obnoxious deputies. So violent was the temper 
of the mob, that even Behrend, "the friend of the 
people," was accused of being lukewarm, and not only 
was he hissed, hooted, and insulted, but his long red 
beard was singed off by the torches of his quondam 
admirers. The Burgher guard for once did their duty, 
and repulsed the invaders of the Assembly, killing or 
wounding about a dozen of them, and arresting several 
others, 

It was expected that Count Pfuel, the premier, 
would take vigorous means to extricate the Govern- 
ment and the country from the degraded and perilous 
position into which they had fallen. But if the King 
had confidence in his minister, the minister had none 

in the Kino*, and he insisted on beino' relieved from the 

... . 

responsibilities of an office which had been discredited 

and made almost untenable by the extreme imprudence 
of the King's language. 

On the retirement of General Pfuel, the King com- 
mitted the task of forming a ministry to his morganatic 
uncle, Count Brandenburg, who was notorious for his 
attachment to the old Absolutist system. The As- 
sembly thereupon resolved, almost unanimously, to 
send an address to the King, declaring that the country 
had for some weeks been kept in alarm by the projects 
of the reactionary party, and that " a Government 
under the auspices of the Count of Brandenburg, with 
out any prospect of obtaining a majority in the 
National Assembly, or of gaining the confidence of the 
country, would undoubtedly bring the excitement to a 
head," and produce disasters like those of Vienna. 
The King received the deputation that waited on him 
with the address, heard it read, and then left the room 
without reply ; not thinking it constitutional, as he after- 



240 PRUSSIA. 

wards intimated, to give an answer in the absence of 
the responsible ministers. As he was turning away, 
Herr Jacobi, one of the deputation, said, " We have 
been sent here not only to hand the address to your 
majesty, but also to give you information respecting the 
true state of the country. Will your majesty hear us ?" 
" No !" said the King ; whereupon Herr Jacobi burst 
out with the angry remark, " It is the misfortune of 
kings that they will not hear the truth 1" 

After the return of the deputation, a formal reply 
was sent to the Assembly in writing : it simply asserted 
the King's right and resolve to appoint the Count as 
Ins minister. On the 9th was gazetted the list of the 
new ministry, consisting wholly of persons not members 
of the Assembly. 

At the meeting of the Chamber on that day, Count 
Brandenburg, Strotha, Manteuffel, and Ladenburg, 
entered as Ministers. The Count arose to address the 
House ; but the President, Von Unruh, stopped him, 
declaring that he could not speak without obtaining 
the Assembly's leave. Count Brandenburg desisted, 
handed in a royal decree, and sat down. The decree 
was read, and was a thunderstroke to the Assembly. 
Alluding briefly to the display of Republican symbols, 
and to criminal demonstrations of force to overawe the 
Assembly, it stated that there was a necessity to transfer 
the sittings from Berlin to Brandenburg, and declared 
" the sittings of the Constituent Assembly to be pro- 
rogued" to the 27th of the month, when it required 
that body to reassemble at Brandenburg. The reading 
of the decree was interrupted by violent exclamations 
and protests. The Minister was apostrophized with 
cries of " Never, never ! Ave protest ; we will not assent ; 
we will perish here sooner ; it is illegal ; it is uncon- 
stitutional : we are masters." In the midst of this 
tumult the Count Brandenburg rose and said : — " In 
consequence of the royal message which has just been 



THE BRANDENBURG MINISTRY. 241 

read, I summon the Assembly to suspend its delibera- 
tions forthwith, and to adjourn until the day specified. 
I must, at the same time, declare all further prolonga- 
tion of the deliberations to be illegal, and protest 
against them in the name of the Crown." He then 
with his colleagues left the hall of the Assembly. 

As soon as the excitement had somewhat abated, the 
steps to be taken were discussed. Two motions were 
made ; the first by Bornemann, that the Ministers 
should be required to withdraw their message : this was 
rejected. The second, divided into three clauses, ran 
in these terms : — " For the present there are not suf- 
ficient grounds for removing the sitting of the delibera- 
tion to any other place : it will therefore remain at 
Berlin. The Crown is not entitled to the right of 
adjourning, removing, or dissolving the Chamber 
against its will. The responsible functionaries who 
may have advised the Crown to issue the above 
message are not qualified to do so, or to represent the 
Government : on the contrary, they have thereby 
rendered themselves guilty of dereliction of duty to- 
wards the Crown, the country, and Assembly."* 

The three clauses of the motion were put separately, 
and they were carried almost unanimously by the 
members remaining in the Chamber — about 240 ; but 
some 59 members of the Right had first withdrawn, 
and they afterwards sent in a protest. 

The members of the diplomatic body quitted their 
gallery immediately after the passing of the resolutions 
in defiance of the royal decree. At that stage of the 
proceedings, M. Nothomb, the Belgian envoy, suggested 
to his colleagues the propriety of retiring. " We are 
accredited," he said, " to the King, and not to this 

* This is in allusion to a defect in Count Brandenburg's 
nomination, which had not been countersigned by any Minister. 
This omission was rectified at a later hour by the nomination 
being sent down countersigned " Eichmann." 
Q 11 



242 Prussia. 

Assembly. His Majesty has formally declared the 
Assembly closed : in our eyes it ought to ba so con- 
sidered ; and consequently, upon general principles, and 
in virtue of all constitutional ancecedents, I hold it to 
be my duty to withdraw. Upon this M. Arago said, 
" My opinion perfectly accords with yours, and I shall 
also retire." The remaining members of the diplomatic 
corps coinciding, the whole body quitted the gallery. 

The Assembly resolved to sit in permanence. The 
President and some thirty members accordingly re- 
mained in the House all night. During the evening 
and night the populace were in a fearfully excited 
state, hurrying about and grouping incessantly on differ- 
ent spots ; but they were everywhere addressed, and 
entreated to remain peaceable, by members of the Left, 
who spread themselves through the city on the mission 
of preaching passive resistance. 

The members of the Assembly were called together 
by Unruh, at five o'clock on the morning of the 10th, 
and told of negotiations that had passed. Count 
Brandenburg had sent him a formal note, addressed to 
him simply as Councillor of State, warning him and the 
members of the Assembly against the illegality of per- 
sisting to meet in Berlin, and making him and them 
answerable for all grave consequences. The minority 
of fifty-nine from the Right had formally protested that 
the Assembly was constituent only ; that in the decree 
which summoned it no place of meeting was mentioned ; 
that the King had, therefore, the right to name the 
place of meeting, and that it was both his right and 
his duty to change that place of terrorism for another ; 
that the Assembly was bound to submit; and that 
further resolutions passed at Berlin were invalid, and 
could not bind the fifty-nine or the rest of the country. 

Deputations from various bodies had gone to the 
King with prayers to retract ; but had not even had an 
interview. In the evening of the 9th, the President of 



POLITICAL CRISIS OF NOVEMBER. 243 

the Police had formally demanded of Rimpler, com- 
mandant of the Burgher Guard, whether the Guard 
" intended to act" on the morning of the 10th, in clos- 
ing by force the hall of the Assembly The captains 
of battalions met, and resolved to inform the Govern- 
ment that the Burgher Guard would protect the 
Chamber, as well as the Government, from all violence 
on the part of the people; but that, should the mili- 
tary be called in, the Burgher Guard would close round 
the theatre of the Assembly, and stand with ordered 
arms between the soldiers and the house ; and should 
the military then advance, in defiance of the protest of 
the Burgher Guard and the President, the former would 
retire, and take no part in the proceeding. It was in 
consequence of these resolutions that the Assembly met 
at five a.m. instead of nine, as it had intended : 225 
members were counted. 

Unruh addressed the House in a speech counselling 
the most cautious moderation ; " to maintain the most 
undeviating attitude of dignified passive resistance." 
The O'Connell maxims were reiterated almost in terms 
— " every drop of blood shed through our fault must 
injure, but cannot benefit, our cause ;" " the blood of 
our citizens must not be squandered ; it must be re- 
served for other occasions." At eight a.m. the members 
refreshed themselves without quitting the house. The 
Burgher Guard surrounded the house with a deep 
cordon, and the people assembled in vast crowds and 
testified their sympathy with the representatives ; 
orators addressing them with advice to keep the strictest 
attitude of peacefulness. 

About noon the Assembly was thrown into a state 
of great uneasiness, by an announcement that the mili- 
tary were on the move and about to enter the city. 
Several members rushed to the windows ; others seized 
their out-door habiliments, as if to fly ; but they were 
recalled by general shouts of "Order!" "To your 



244 Prussia. 

seats !" The business of the House was then resumed, 
and a proclamation to the Prussian people was agreed 
to, in which the Assembly protested against the un- 
justifiable acts of the Crown, and called on the people 
to resist by legal means. 

At half-past four the President rose suddenly, and 
announced that the theatre of the Assembly was com- 
pletely surrounded by the military. The Commandant 
of the Burgher Guard had questioned General Wrangel 
why he thus assembled his troops. Wrangel answered, 
that he really should be glad to get quickly into 
quarters : he was protecting the Assembly. Rimpler. — 
" The Assembly declines your protection : how long 
shall you keep your troops here ?" Wrangel. — " My 
troops are used to the bivouac : they can remain here 
a week, if the Assembly sit so long." At five o'clock 
the President announced that General Wrangel per- 
sisted in blockading the Assembly. He would allow 
the gentlemen in the house to go out of it, but would 
allow none to return. " As to an Assembly, he only 
knew of one that had been dissolved." The Assembly 
resolved, on the advice of Unruh, to submit to force 
under protest ; to withdraw, and reassemble elsewhere 
next day. This was done. The troops made passages ; 
the Deputies marched out two and two ; and the 
Burgher Guard followed them in columns. The people 
were harangued from houses, and seemed to enter into 
the policy preached by the Left. They dispersed peace- 
fully, and the town assumed an appearance of myste- 
rious calm. 

On the morning of the 11th, 240 of the expelled 
Deputies met in the great hall of the Rifle Guild, and 
proceeded to transact business. Addresses of sympathy 
poured in from public bodies in Berlin, and from the 
provinces. The Town Council voted its freedom to 
Unruh and two other members. A committee of the 
Assembly was appointed ,to draw up a full report of 



POLITICAL CRISIS OF NOVEMBER. 245 

events for national circulation ; another committee was 
to consider and report on the expediency of impeaching 
the Ministry, and in the event of their perseverance in 
present courses, of stopping- supplies. A report that it 
was intended to disband and disarm the Burgher Guard 
reached the Assembly, and caused immense excitement. 
It Wcis resolved, that those who advised the measure 
were traitors to the country ; that the Burgher Guard 
should be forbidden, on pain of being themselves 
declared traitors, to surrender their arms; and that 
they should be ordered and directed to defend them- 
selves to the last against all attempts to disarm them. 

Later in the day, a royal proclamation appeared, by 
which the Burgher Guard was disbanded, in conse- 
quence of its illegal deportment on the previous day. 
The document contained the following, among other 
passages, in the King's own peculiar style : — " To all 
of you (Prussians) I again give the inviolable assurance 
that nothing shall be abrogated from your constitutional 
liberties ; that it shall be my holiest endeavor to be 
unto you, by the help of God, a good constitutional 
king, so that we may mutually erect a stately and 
tenable edifice, beneath whose roof, to the weal of our 
Prussian and our whole German fatherland, our pos- 
terity may quietly and peacefully rejoice in the blessings 
of genuine and true liberty for generations to come. 
May the blessings of God rest upon our work ! " 

On the 12th there appeared another proclamation, 
more especially devoted to the dissolving the Burgher 
Guard, in these words, after long preliminary state- 
ments : — " In conformity with the. 3d section of the 
law of the 17 th October, for the organization of the 
Burgher Guard, the contents of which are as follows, — 
i The Burgher Guard can be suspended or dissolved 
by order of the King, for motives to be mentioned in 
the decree of dissolution. This suspension cannot 
exceed six months. The order for reforming the 



246 Prussia. 

Barg'lier Guard must be published three months 
after its suspension ; ' we have declared the Burgher 
Guard of Berlin is dissolved ; and the competent 
authorities are hereby required to execute this decree." 

The Burgher Guard met and resolved not to dis- 
band, or to yield up their arms. During the day, 
foreigners arrived and families departed ; both ominous 
events. The people maintained a peaceable attitude, 
but were with difficulty restrained. The Assembly 
continued its proceedings in the hall of the Rifle Guild. 
Deputations and addresses from the provinces were 
announced : an important one from the Assembly of 
Representatives of the two Mecklenburgs, applauding 
the Assembly for its conduct, and promising all assist- 
ance in their power ; another from Magdeburg, 
making a similar declaration, and sending 5000 dollars 
for the Deputies, whose allowances were stopped ; 
others from Stettin, Anklam, &c. At six o'clock, 
General Wrangel determined to place the city under 
martial law ; and the state of siege was shortly after 
proclaimed by officers at the corners of all the principal 
streets. But at the same time the interval was pro- 
longed one day, for yielding up the arms of the 
Burgher Guard. The soldiers patrolled in large bodies 
and dispersed the crowd ; and the Parliament mem- 
bers of the Left were again seen in all directions con- 
juring the people to disperse and to be quiet. The 
artisans of the great iron-works also hastened to and 
fro wherever excitement arose, and calmed it with the 
words, " Be cool — be quiet ! " 

The night passed without any outbreak. On the 
13th, the proceedings of the Assembly were interrupted 
by the entry of an officer from General Wrangel, 
summoning it, as an "illegal meeting, to disperse." 
The Vice-president Plonies was in the chair, and he 
refused to leave it unless by force. The whole House 
shouted, "Never, till forced by arms!" Upon this 



POLITICAL CRISIS OF NOVEMBER. 247 

two or three officers, with a party of soldiers, entered, 
and repeating the summons, received the same an- 
swer. Thereupon the soldiers advanced, seized the 
chair upon which M. Plonies was seated, and carried 
him, as gently as possible, into the street, where they 
deposited him safely. The members followed their 
President, unanimously protesting against this violation 
of his dignity. The military having performed their 
tragi-comic duty with great discretion withdrew, and 
the mob dispersed, after bestowing an extempore ova- 
tion on their representatives. 

During the whole of the 13th, the people disregarded 
the proclamation of the state of siege, and continued 
to assemble in crowds wherever the military did not 
prevent them ; but they dispersed when the latter 
marched among their masses. Towards night a 
proclamation appeared, directing the soldiers to forbear 
no longer, but " at once fire " on all persons who per- 
sisted in assembling, or remaining together after a 
summons to withdraw. 

The ex-President of the National Assembly, M. 
Grabow, had an audience with the King ; and the 
latter is said to have uttered the following words : — 
" I know that my crown is at stake ; nevertheless, I 
am firmly resolved not to yield." 

Notwithstanding their two expulsions, the state of 
siege, and the proclamation of martial law, the mem- 
bers of the Assembly persevered in their attempts to 
meet. On the morning of the 15th they assembled 
in the hall of the Town Council, and were about to 
commence business, when a battalion of infantry drew 
up before the hall, and took possession of the doors. 
The officer in command entered, and politely, but 
peremptorily, requested the members to withdraw ; at 
the same time he showed them General Wrangel's 
written order to that effect. The members, after a 



248 Prussia. 

brief consultation together, withdrew under protest, 
and the troops marched back to their barracks. 

In the evening, 226 members met at Mielentz's, a 
coffee-house on the Linden, went through the formali- 
ties of opening a sitting, and proceeded at once to 
debate the question of refusing taxes. " Two proposi- 
tions," says the report of the proceedings, "were 
submitted for consideration. The first, adopted by the 
committee, ran thus, — 

" * No Minister is authorized to levy taxes until this 
resolution (for the non-payment of taxes submitted to 
the committee) be revoked.' 

" The second motion, submitted by Schulz and 
others, was thus worded, — 

" ' The National Assembly decrees, that the Bran- 
denburg Ministry is not authorized to levy taxes, or 
disburse the public money, until the National Assem- 
bly can fulfil its duties in safety at Berlin. This reso- 
lution will take effect from the lYth November next 
ensuing.' 

" The call of the House had scarcely terminated, 
hcrvvever, ere a field officer entered the apartment, 
accompanied by half-a-dozen grenadiers, who were 
posted at the door, whilst a battalion of the same corps 
were drawn up at the entrance of the building on the 
Linden. The officer approached the President, and 
stated that he had received orders from General Wran- 
gel to cause the chamber to be evacuated. This 
message having been communicated by M. Unruh to 
the House, it was responded to by a general shout of, 
' We will not stir !' President (to the officer.) — ' Sir, 
I must beg you to exhibit your warrant.' Officer. — ' I 
have no written order, but I trust you will believe my 
word.' President. — ' I am far from questioning your 
word, but it is my duty to demand a written warrant.' 
Officer. — c That is not in my power : General Wrangel 



POLITICAL CRISIS OF NOVEMBER. 249 

declined to give me written instructions.' (Exclama- 
tions of ' This is shameful ]') President. — ' Have you 
received orders to employ force ?' ' I confidently trust,' 
replied the Major, ' that you will not drive me to that 
alternative.' ' I must demand categorically,' exclaimed 
the President, ' whether you have, or have not, orders 
to employ force of arms V ' I have,' rejoined the 
officer. President. — ' And are you resolved to employ 
it V 'I am,' replied the Major. (General silence ; dur- 
ing which the Deputies looked at each other, whispered, 
but maintained perfect calmness.) President. — ' Under 
these circumstances, I declare that force has been exer- 
cised towards the Assembly, and that I am com- 
pelled ' 

" The President was now interrupted by the whole 
Assembly rising, ' No, no ! a thousand times no ! We 
will not move from this room, although we were run 
through with bayonets !' Sixty or seventy Deputies 
sprang towards the officer and his small escort, and by 
their excited gestures appeared disposed to drive them 
from the Chamber ; whilst the remainder, in a state of 
indescribable excitement, crowded round the President's 
table. During this state of confusion and uproar, 
which lasted some time, the officer and his escort stood 
perfectly calm, but not without the precaution of com- 
municating with the detachment outside. 

" At length, when silence was somewhat re-estab- 
lished, there was a general call from members, ' Con- 
tinue the deliberations. We will hear of no more 
interruptions. Clear the chamber of strangers.' Upon 
this the Major approached the chair, and, after con- 
ferring with the President, returned to his escort, and 
retired with them outside the door, whilst a messenger 
was despatched to headquarters for further instructions. 
The members now returned to their seats, and, with 
infinitely more calmness and self-possession than could 
be expected, listened to the reading of M. Schulz's 
11* 



250 PRUSSIA. 

motion. This had scarcely terminated ere the whole 
body rose and agreed to it, with a general shout of 
* Yes, yes ! ' This decision was no sooner known, than 
a triple hurrah was raised by the whole House, and 
was prolonged during several minutes amidst inde- 
scribable enthusiasm. At length the President rose, 
and officially announced the passing of the decree 
prohibiting the levying of taxes : he then proposed 
that the House should adjourn ; and announced that 
he would communicate to members individually the 
time, place, and hour for their next sitting. The mem- 
bers then dispersed." 

They dispersed, exulting in the cleverness with 
which they had outwitted the Brandenburg Ministry, 
and dealt it such a parting blow. After this exploit, 
the recusant section of the Assembly made no further 
attempt at meeting, although, to give full effect to the 
resolution against the payment of taxes, it ought to 
have been confirmed by a second vote. Victorious 
over the Constituent Assembly, the Ministry proceeded 
with the utmost vigor in executing the still more 
daring measure of disarming the Burgher Guard. 
Resistance was impossible, and the disarmament was 
fully effected without the slightest disturbance. The 
truth seems to be, that a vast number of the citizens 
were, in secret, not ill-pleased to be relieved of the 
task of keeping watch and ward, and of the toils of 
military duty added to all the difficulties of life and 
business, during a most depressed period. Nor can it 
be said that the interests of the capital sustained any 
great loss through the suppression of its civic soldiery. 
Against any real crisis of peril, a more inefficient 
repressive body than the Burgher Guard of Berlin 
never existed. Speculating on its reluctance to act 
with any energy, the leaders of the mob did nearly 
as they pleased. The Palace was stormed, the Arse- 
nal sacked, and the Chamber, often threatened, was at 



POLITICAL CRISIS OF NOVEMBER. 251 

last actually invaded and compelled to vote under 
terror, and all this in the presence of 30,000 armed 
men ! 

Irrespectively of the broad question of right, at issue 
between the Constituent Assembly of Prussia and the 
Brandenburg Ministry, it is impossible to withhold 
from the latter the praise due to the admirable efficien- 
cy of their coercive measures. These were so perfect, 
that the contest was decided without the shedding 
of one drop of blood. Arrests, however, were nume- 
rous, and all the prisons were crowded. What seeds 
of wrath and hatred were sown, to bear deadly fruit 
at some future day, it is as yet impossible to tell. An 
eye-witness of the struggle, writing from Berlin on the 
19th, says : — 

" All expression of public opinion being prohibited, 
there is a perfect quiet and apathy on the surface of 
things ; but beneath it there is, unquestionably, the 
most bitter and angry feeling against the Government. 
The citizens do not grant, for a moment, that there 
was any real occasion for so extreme a measure as 
declaring the capital in a state of siege. They regard 
it as the completion of a long-contemplated plan, a fit 
opportunity for which was only waited for ; and that 
this was furnished by the events at Vienna, without 
reference to the state of Berlin at all. Besides the 
humiliation of the disarmament, the declaration of the 
state of siege has inflicted a loss on the city and its 
trade which they are very ill able to bear. Strangers 
avoid a place, the condition of which they imagine to 
be so alarming. Families who had begun to return 
have again fled, and large mansions are standing 
empty. The dreary aspect of the city is indescribable. 
The respectable inhabitants appear to keep purposely 
within doors. The streets are nearly deserted, being 
left almost wholly to a few working people and the 
military patrols. The weather, the streets, trade, poli- 



252 Prussia. 

tics, tempers, and prospects, are all alike dark and 
discouraging." 

On the other hand, we find the same writer describ- 
ing, only ten days later, a striking demonstration of 
loyalty which occurred at the Berlin Opera, where the 
busts of the King and Queen were crowned amidst the 
enthusiastic plaudits of the audience. 

The. King and his Ministers had unequivocally dis- 
played their superiority in point of military strength ; 
but this would have availed them little had the country 
continued in a state of moral revolt. But so far was 
this from being the case, that the popular sympathies, 
at first engaged by the Assembly, were very generally 
alienated from that body as soon as the illegal charac- 
ter of its acts came to be understood. The King's right 
to prorogue the Assembly and to dissolve the Burgher 
Guard was incontestable ; the Assembly's denial of 
that right was a flagrant usurpation of the powers of 
the Executive. The resolution against the payment of 
taxes was equally indefensible. It had nothing in 
common with the constitutional expedient of withhold- 
ing the supplies, or with the legal opposition to 
arbitrary imposts, tested by judicial authority, by which 
British liberty has been vindicated on certain memo- 
rable occasions. It was simply an order to refuse 
payment of taxes, due under laws regularly enacted and 
not repealed by any competent authority, and it was 
issued, as the mover of the resolution expressly stated, 
" for the purpose of throwing the country into anarchy." 
The scheme was not successful ; the taxes were paid 
without much demur, and a large proportion of them 
were even paid in advance, in testimony of the dis- 
approbation with which the anarchical mandate was 
regarded. 

It is probable that the decision of the Frankfort 
Parliament contributed not a little towards fixing 
public opinion in Prussia in favor of the King's policy. 



STATE OF THINGS AT BERLIN. 253 

Reversing a former resolution, in which it had mildly 
censured the royal proceedings, the Imperial Assembly 
affirmed, on the 20th of November, by a majority of 
276 votes against 150, a resolution to the following 
effect : — The King of Prussia is earnestly advised to 
appoint a ministry which enjoys the confidence of the 
country. " The notoriously illegal and dangerous reso- 
lution of the residue of the Berlin Assembly" is 
declared to be null and void. The Imperial Assembly 
will protect the rights and liberties promised and 
guaranteed to the people of Prussia, against all at- 
tempts to violate them. 

The Frankfort Assembly had sent Herr Bassermann, 
an earnest and distinguished member of the Liberal 
party, as its commissioner, to observe the political crisis 
pending in Berlin, and the above resolution was 
founded on. his oral report, made in a public sitting. 
He described the state of things in Berlin as appalling. 
The mob that, until then, had ruled in the streets, was 
" a most detestable one." The freedom of the press was 
abused in propagating atrocious incentives to crime, in 
the shape of flying leaves, placards, prints, &c. " One, for 
instance, stuck on the walls of a number of streets, sold 
in all shops, thrust into your hands wherever you went, 
was a paper of dark red color, with the inscription, 
" The Republican's Dream ;" it represented a man 
sleeping, and all around him an assemblage of lamps 
with men hanging on them. The red flag was hoisted 
before the very door of the Assembly. The accounts 
of the cruel threats against members of the Berlin 
Assembly were, if anything, understated. Three times 
had members of the Right begged the House to pass 
bills that would give safety to their lives, and three 
times had the Assembly refused to pass any such bills ; 
three times had it confided its members " to the safe- 
guard of the people." It had happened on the very 
staircase of the Assembly-house, that an orator called 



254 Prussia. 

upon the mob to come next time armed with short 
knives and pickaxes, saying that it was easier to find 
out your man with such instruments ; and the next 
evening- thousands of these instruments were seen ! He 
had seen General Brandenburg and M. Von Manteuffel ; 
and he found them determined to quell anarchy, but as 
decided not to infringe the liberties of the people. The 
Minister had said to him, " It would be impossible for 
any man to rob Prussia of its liberties." Now he. did 
not consider those men so mad as to strive after what 
they considered to be impossible. On the other hand, 
the members of the Assembly with whom he conferred 
were absolutely proof against any endeavor of his to 
mediate. One of those gentlemen, an influential 
name, upon being asked what would be the Assembly's 
conditions of mediation, answered as follows : — First, 
banishment of the Royal Princes; second, seizure and 
prosecution of the present Ministers and of General 
Wrangel for high treason ; third, the assurance on the 
part of his Majesty that he would execute all the 
decrees of the Assembly. He had tried to explain, that 
such an Assembly would be a Convention, and that a 
country with such a Government would be a Republic ; 
but all in vain." 

Strange to say, the individual who propounded the 
extravagant conditions above mentioned was Herr 
Kerchman, a judicial functionary, and reputed to be an 
able jurist. The proportion of lawyers in the Prussian 
Constituent Assembly was very large, and the conse- 
quences were anything but fortunate. The smaller 
minds among the legal Deputies seemed only occupied 
in perplexing and embroiling every question and party 
by idle subtleties, and contests about the most trivial 
points ; and the more eminent of them appear to have 
been totally deserted by their legal knowledge on criti- 
cal occasions, when they had most need of it. As for 
Kerchman and his conditions, there is no evidence that 



SEQUEL OF CRISIS. 255 

he was at all authorized to propose them in the name 
of the whole Opposition, or of any considerable fraction 
of it ; and Unruh and other leading men of the party 
loudly protested, that Bassermann had acted most un- 
fairly and unwarrantably in reporting such unauthorized 
propositions, as the solemnly preferred basis of a politi- 
cal negotiation. 

On the appointed day, November 27, the Prussian 
Assembly met at Brandenburg ; but the Left kept their 
word and abstained from attending, and the Right and 
Centre were unable to make more than three-fourths of 
a House. This state of things continued for some days. 
At last the members of the Left entered in a body, and 
completed a quorum ; they then tried one vote, but 
finding themselves in a minority they immediately 
withdrew, and again reduced the Assembly to an 
incapacity to vote. The remaining members adjourned 
to the 7th of December, on which day it was expected 
that the Left would assemble in full strength, re-elect 
Unruh President, and affirm the resolutions prohibiting 
the levy of taxes. These manoeuvres were anticipated 
by the King and his Ministers. On the 5th appeared 
an edict dissolving the Assembly, and accompanying 
that decree was a complete draft of a Constitution, 
which was to have force provisionally, until it should 
be assented to or revised in the ordinary course of legis- 
lation. 

Thus ended the Prussian Revolution of 1848. The 
Assembly was beaten at all points, in right as w r ell as 
in fact. Its neglected task had been taken out of its 
hands, and most satisfactorily performed by the Execu- 
tive. The new Prussian Constitution closely resembles 
that of Belgium. ■ It may be ranked among the most 
democratic in Europe, and acknowledged as fairly 
realizing for Prussia all the promises made by Frederick 
William in March. 

After suppressing the miscalled Constituent Assem- 



256 Prussia. 

bly, which had proved its incapacity to constitute any- 
thing, the Government next applied itself with great 
vigor to purge the capital of those turbulent men who 
had led the brawls during the seven months' reign of 
mob-law. All foreign political emissaries, and especially 
the members of the Polish Propaganda, were ordered 
away ; and many natives of Southern Germany came 
under the same ban. The number of such persons de- 
ported by the police, or who fled from the terrors of 
martial law, amounted to many thousands. Several 
ringleaders in riots subsequent to the amnesty of March, 
were brought to trial and sentenced to long terms of 
imprisonment ; and all the others, who were not exiles, 
beheld the same fate impending over them. The men 
who were foremost in storming and plundering the 
Arsenal, the leaders of the attack on the hotels of the 
Ministers, the pullers down of the palace gates, and 
even those who addressed the crowds in the streets the 
night after the Civic Guard was dissolved, were all made 
to expiate their sayings and doings, for most of which 
no one had imagined any punishment possible ; whilst 
the majority of their fellow-citizens seemed rather to 
rejoice in their correction than to lament it. 

A prosecution was also begun against those Depu- 
ties who had, in their individual capacity, incited the 
people to refuse payment of taxes. The process, it was 
thought, would be a long one, and the result was gene- 
rally regarded as problematical. But this was not all. 
A violent spirit of hostility, arising out of the ill-advised 
vote on the taxes, invaded the seat of justice itself. 
The colleagues of Messrs. Waldeck, Kerchman, Gierke, 
and other judges, who as Deputies had joined in that 
vote, refused to sit with them. Herr Temme, Director 
of the Oberlandsgericht in Minister, was on the same 
grounds arrested by the officers of his own court. The 
landed proprietors in the provincial Diet of Branden- 
burg, a body somewhat resembling the English courts 



COST OF REVOLUTION. 257 

of quarter sessions, withdrew when one of the recusant 
members of the late Assembly took his seat among 
them. " Thus," says the intelligent writer from whom 
we derive these facts, " the judges will not join in ad- 
ministering the law, nor proprietors discuss local inte- 
rests, in communion with a compromised Deputy. If 
this violent party spirit increase, and is carried out in 
all the ordinary affairs of life, endless confusion will be 
the result." « 

Some data towards an estimate of the cost of the 
Prussian Revolution were put forth towards the close 
of the year. The increased expenditure of taxation so 
occasioned is reckoned at 6,500,000 of thalers ; in which 
sum are included 1,700,000 thalers distributed among 
unemployed workmen, and 2,000,000 thalers the cost 
of calling out the Landwehr and putting the army on a 
war footing. An estimate of the loss sustained by all 
classes in Prussia, in the general depreciation of pro- 
perty since March, forms a much sadder chapter in the 
history of the Revolution. 

Up to the 1st of October, it is calculated that the 
loss in railway property, in shares and securities con- 
nected with it, was 45,000,000 thalers. The deprecia- 
tion of funded property and state paper was enormous ; 
but prices fluctuated so much that the exact estimate 
cannot be given. On real property, such as houses, 
buildings, and building-ground, the loss in the city of 
Berlin alone was 30,000,000 thalers, being the difference 
between what such property would have fetched in the 
market, if converted into money, before the Revolution 
and after it. To this must be added the loss of rent of 
17,000 houses, deserted and left empty during the 
year. The trade of the city suffered from a decrease 
in the average expenditure of at least 10,000,000 
thalers. The Civic Guard, which proved so sad a 
failure as a protective force, cost 1,500,000 of thalers ; 
and the Government was forced to have recourse to a 

R 



258 Prussia. 

*" benevolence," or voluntary loan (amounting to 
10,436,000 thalers), under the threat of raising a forced 
one. The experiment of " concording" a constitution, 
which proved so unsuccessful, cost the capital of 
Prussia, on a moderate calculation, between 40,000,000 
and 50,000,000 thalers. The ruin inflicted on indi- 
viduals is proved by the fact, that from the end of 
March an average of twenty names was daily struck off 
the Jist of citizens paying the tax incident upon em- 
ployers and tradesmen ; masters employing workmen 
sank themselves to the condition of workmen. Such 
is the price paid for seven months of political agitation. 
The expense of maintaining the whole army on a war 
footing would have to be added to complete the account ; 
it is not less than 30,000 thalers a day. 

The following is a brief enumeration of the most 
important points of the Constitution, octroyi, as the 
phrase is, by the King of Prussia to his subjects. Its 
112 provisions are classified on the model of the Bel- 
gian Constitution, under nine titles. The second chap- 
ter concerns the " Eights of Prussia :" it proclaims the 
equality of all Prussians before the law; guarantees 
freedom of the person, including the right of emigration ; 
freedom of property, of religious faith, of knowledge in 
its communication ; giving every Prussian " a right to 
express his ideas freely, orally, scripturally, by the 
printing-press, and by artistical designs ;" and it declares 
the secresy of letters to be inviolable. Offences in 
diffusing ideas are cognisable only by the general penal 
code. The civil validity of marriage is determinate 
prior to the performance of the religious ceremony. 
Feudal tenures, family entails, and privileges of rank, 
are abolished. The third title, " of the King," establishes 
the inviolability of the King's person, and the responsi- 
bility of his Ministers. The fifth title regulates the 
Constitution of the two Legislative Chambers. The 
First Chamber is to consist of 180 members, who must 



NEW CONSTITUTION. 259 

each be forty years of age, five years resident in Prussia, 
and in full enjoyment of civil rights. The Second 
Chamber will number 350 members, each above twenty- 
four years of age, resident six months, in full civil ca- 
pacity, and not in receipt of public relief. The elective 
franchise for both Chambers is indirect, and is founded 
on population and property. "All Prussians thirty 
years of age," paying 24s. yearly taxes, or . possessing 
land worth 1200/. or yielding a rent of 75/., and who 
have resided six weeks, may vote as primary electors in 
choosing the direct electors of the First Chamber. The 
direct electors then choose the members of the Cham- 
ber. "Each independent Prussian," six months' resi- 
dent, not receiving parish relief, may vote as primary 
elector in the choice of direct electors of the Second 
Chamber. The direct electors then choose the mem- 
bers of the Second Chamber. The sixth title, regu- 
lating the judicial power, places the judges at the ap- 
pointment of the King, but gives them a life-tenure 
indefeasible except by judicial decisions on grounds 
provided by law. No previous permission is to be 
necessary before procedure against public, military, or 
civil officers for overstepping their authority. Title 
eighth, "on Finance," declares that taxes or imposts 
can only be levied under special laws, and abolishes all 
exemptions from burdens. Excesses of expenditure 
must be approved by the Chambers, and the Chambers 
alone can give the Government a discharge of its ac- 
counts ; which must be submitted annually with the 
budget for the coming year. General provisions declare 
that laws and ordinances are obligatory only when 
published in a legal form ; but " when the Chambers 
are not sitting, ordinances on urgent occasions, and on 
the responsibility of the whole of the Ministry, may be 
published with all the force of law : but these are to 
be laid before the Chambers for approval at the nearest 
session." 



260 GERMANY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
GERMANY. 

THE NEW EMPIRE — ITS PRETENSIONS AND ITS PERFORMANCES. 

Does there yet exist a German Empire ? The full 
form of that grand creation has been for months before 
the world ; but whether or not that form invests a cor- 
responding reality is still an unsolved question. The 
Imperial Government is complete : there is the Regent 
of the Empire and a responsible ministry. The Regent 
claims, and has not been denied, control over the united 
armies of the empire. He has issued a circular to the 
diplomatic agents of the German States in foreign 
courts, intimating that, although they may negotiate 
the local interests of their own governments, they must 
not in their separate capacities meddle with aggregate 
Imperial questions. The Central Government has in- 
terposed its supreme authority on many occasions, in 
the internal affairs of several German States ; but as in 
every such instance its interference has been favorable 
to the State Executive, no convincing proof has yet 
been afforded of its power to coerce reluctant members 
of the federal body. Now, it is manifest, that without 
such a paramount Imperial power the Emperor is but 
a nullity. This cardinal truth was assumed as the very 
basis of their system, by those able men to whom the 
German people committed the task of elaborating their 
own crude conception of German unity. 

Jhe remarkable manifesto issued by the Prince von 



THEORY OF THE IMPERIAL POWER. 261 

Leiningen, tlie first Imperial Minister of the Interior, 
contains proposals which plainly amount to this, that 
the thirty-eight sovereigns of Germany are to be re- 
duced to the condition of mediatized princes, or of 
lords-lieutenant of provinces. The consummation of 
such a design is a problem reserved for the future to 
solve ; all that the past tells us is, that the strength of 
the Central Government has risen and sunk inversely 
with that of the great subordinate powers. When the 
high princes of Germany felt their own authority 
crippled, they were glad to avail themselves of such 
supplemental aid as the Central Government could best 
supply. Repressive measures, which the local govern- 
ments would have in vain attempted, were easily ac- 
complished by a power that issued its behests in the 
name of all Germany, and whose acts were, therefore, 
safe from the invidious interpretations commonly put 
upon the conduct of men who have private and family 
interests to defend. Hitherto, then, 'the relation 
between the central and the subordinate Governments 
lias been altogether void of reciprocity. Its nature has 
been accurately indicated by a sagacious writer in one 
pithy sentence : — " Prussians and Austrians, although 
willing enough to merge their difficulties in the com- 
mon stock, under the custody of the Regent, are very 
jealous of really merging their powers.''* An act of in- 
subordination committed by the monarch who had pro- 
fessed to take the lead in constructing an imperial 
authority, led to a damaging exposure of the weakness 
of the Frankfort Government, and gave occasion to an 
open assault upon it, accompanied by circumstances of 
hideous atrocity. 

The armistice concluded on the 26th August, at 
Malmoe, by the plenipotentiaries of Prussia, Denmark, 
and Sweden, was ratified at Lubeck on the 1st of 

* British Quarterly Review, Nov. 1848, 



262 GERMANY. 

September. The duchies were to be evacuated by the 
Danish and the German troops, and a Provisional 
Government of five persons, including Count Molke as 
president, was to rule in the name of the King-duke. 
The duchy troops of Schleswig were to be organized 
under the King, and those of Holstein under the Con- 
federation. The contributions levied by General 
Wrangel were to be repaid, and the seizures made by 
the Danish fleet to be restored or paid for. The 
armistice to last seven months from the 26th of August, 
and thenceforward until ended by notice from either 
party. Great Britain was requested to guarantee the 
performance of these conditions. 

The armistice occasioned a violent commotion in 
Frankfort, and nearly produced a collision between the 
central authority and the King of Prussia. The As- 
sembly resolved on the 5th of September, by a majority 
of 238 to 22, to suspend the measures for carrying the 
armistice into'execution. Its conditions were discussed 
in a most fiery sitting, and seem to have raised the 
greatest indignation against Prussia, and even doubts 
of her loyalty to the new empire. One of the clauses 
of the armistice required its ratification in eight days : 
that term expired on the 3d, and the ministry did not 
lay the document before the Assembly until the 4th. 
But what most of all roused the German opposition 
was the form of the initiative and titular parts of the 
instrument : it was concluded in the name of the King 
of Prussia instead of the Regent of the Empire, and on 
behalf of the Germanic Confederation, instead of the 
Imperial Assembly : the assuming that the Confedera- 
tion still existed was deemed equivalent to ignoring the 
existence of the Assembly and the Regent. The 
appointment of Molke also gave deep offence. 

The resolution of the Assembly was immediately 
followed by the resignation of the imperial ministry. 
Professor Dahlmaun, the leader of the majority, having 



SEPTEMBER RIOTS AT FRANKFORT. 263 

failed to form a ministry, the Assembly was compelled 
to retrace its steps, which it did by resolving on the 
16th, by a majority of 257 to 236, that the armistice 
should be allowed with the modifications which Den- 
mark herself had declared to be admissible. The 
populace assembled round St. Paul's and threatened an 
attack on the majority as they retired, but did not 
execute their threats. 

Next day large out-door meetings assembled, and 
were addressed by Blum, Simon, and other Republican 
leaders. Resolutions were passed denouncing the ma- 
jority who ratified the armistice as guilty of " high 
treason against the majesty, liberty, and honor of the 
German people." The Senate of Frankfort sent word 
to the Regent that they would no longer guarantee 
order. The Regent induced part of his late ministry 
to resume office provisionally : Schmerling took the 
combined Home, Foreign, and War Departments, and 
made prompt provisions against an outbreak ; bringing 
Austrian, Prussian, and Bavarian troops into Frankfort. 

On Monday, these measures were violently con- 
demned in the Assembly by the Left, but it was evident 
that the Revolutionists were awed. Outside the popu- 
lace began to pelt the soldiery with stones and to raise 
barricades. Schmerling declared the city in a state of 
siege. The defenders^of the barricades were summoned 
to surrender, and on their refusing to comply they were 
attacked by the military. A sharp fight ensues, but the 
rioters were soon overcome, being ill-armed and not 
having the burghers on their side. By midnight every 
point was in the hands of the troops. 

But before order was restored the horrible murder of 
Prince Lichnowski and Major Auerswald had branded 
the Republican party with indelible disgrace. After 
leaving the Assembly, of which they were members, 
they rode out of the town, with the intention, it is sup- 
posed, of meeting the artillery, which was to arrive 



264 GERMANY. 

about five o'clock. Several shots being fired at them 
they attempted to ride back to the town, but found that 
they were surrounded on all sides. They then en- 
deavored to escape across the fields, but Major Auers- 
wald was quickly stopped and dragged from his horse. 
The assassins, having thrown him on the ground, coolly 
deliberated where wounds would cause the greatest 
pain, and then fired into different parts of his body. 
Observing that life was not quite extinct they left him, 
saying it was all the better, because he would have the 
more to suffer ; but an old woman put an end to the 
unfortunate gentleman's agony by battering his brains 
out with a stone. Prince Lichnowski, after galloping 
about a field from which he could find no outlet, re- 
turned to the public promenade, where he was seized 
by a number of men, who, having literally slashed, slit, 
and scraped the flesh from his arms and part of his 
legs, left him with the remark that this was enough for 
the present, and that he might afford them more sport 
when he had recovered a little. The prince, with the 
utmost difficulty, crawled to a neighboring cottage, 
where he was kindly received. He had scarcely been 
there an hour when the same men, with many others, 
armed with guns, made their appearance and demanded 
his immediate surrender, which the hospitable people 
of the cottage refused. The watches then made pre- 
parations to set fire to the house, and on hearing this 
the prince boldly stepped out to meet his fate. He was 
received with shouts of derision, and one of the leaders, 
dressed as a common laborer, declared that as the 
prince had always been a kind of Don Quixote he ought 
to die so : accordingly, they pulled off his clothes and 
decked him with some sort of grotesque drapery ; then 
forming a circle round him and pricking him with their 
knives and bayonets, they compelled him to keep con- 
stantly in motion : at last, tired of this sport, they 
fastened him to a wall, and, at a distance of only ten 



THE NEW GERMAN EMPIRE. 265 

yards, fired more than twenty balls, most of them in- 
tentionally avoiding- the vital parts ; but after he had 
received three mortal wounds they went away laughing, 
and left him to suffer a little longer. In this state he 
was found by a patrol of Hessian cavalry, and car- 
ried, by his own desire, to the hospital, where the rest 
of those wounded in the riot had been received. He 
expired about an hour past midnight, after dictating a 
minute relation of these horrid scenes. 

The outbreak in Frankfort was soon followed by a 
second Republican invasion of Baden. A column of 
2000 men, consisting of Italians, Poles, French, and 
Germans, and headed by Struve, crossed the frontier 
from Switzerland on the 23d of September, but were 
speedily defeated by troops sent against them by the 
Central Government. Some hundred prisoners were 
taken, including Struve himself. He and eighty of his 
immediate followers were forthwith tried by court- 
martial, condemned, and shot. 

The end of the year arrived before the new German 
Constitution had come out of the makers' hands. 
There seemed, at that period, an increasing probability 
that, if the Frankfort proceedings did not end in utter 
failure, the King of Prussia, or his heir-presumptive, 
would be elected by the Assembly as Emperor of Ger- 
many ; that is to say, of a German empire in which 
Austria is not to be included. The Regent's prime 
minister (Schmerling), and Wuth, the Under-Secretary 
of State, both of them Austrian Deputies, resigned office 
on the 16th of December, and Baron Von Gagern, who 
was known to be strongly in favor of the claims of 
Prussia, became the head of the cabinet. His first 
care was to lay before the Assembly his views with re- 
gard to Austria, which were, in substance, that Austria, 
in conformity with her own declaration to that effect, 
should be considered as not forming part of the new 
Federal State ; but that as she was a member of the 
12 



266 GERMANY. 

German Confederation, and therefore " in indissoluble 
alliance with Germany as represented by the Provisional 
Central," she should be treated with by way of diplo- 
matic negotiation on all topics of common interest, save 
only the constitution of the Federal State, as to which 
she was not to be consulted. 

We have seen what the new German Empire was 
intended to be ; how far the programme has been 
realized, we may infer from the following remarks 
by Von Menzel in an article of unusual length in the 
leading quarterly journal of Germany : — 

" Fortunate might we deem ourselves could we dis- 
cover a close analogy between our present circum- 
stances and the first French Revolution, for then we 
might hope to arrive at last at unity, though it were 
through a peiiod of terror, and the true patriot should 
shrink from no sacrifice that might help to bring about 
that consummation. But, as it seems, things will not 
turn out so well and so easily for us as for the French, 
and a much sadder analogy lies nearer to us, that, 
namely, of the Thirty Years' War. The erection of all 
Germany into a Republic, and an omnipotent dictator 
like Napoleon, as a consequence of that great move- 
ment, would be a good fortune for us, notwithstanding 
all the sufferings we should thereby have to sustain. 
But we shall not attain to this good fortune, since the 
Republican impulse is far from being so uniform and 
vivid among us Germans as it was in France, and since 
our German Republicans have from the outset made 
democratic freedom their sole aim, setting aside the 
question of nationality, and not hesitating to attach 
themselves expressly to France. But the strength of 
revolutionary France lay not so much in its thirst for 
freedom as in its national pride, and in a consciousness 
of its unity that pervaded the whole people : a circum- 
stance that precludes every comparison with us. 

" Our present circumstances portend, therefore, some- 



FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE EMPIRE. 267 

thing more analogous to the Thirty Years' War, — the 
splitting of Germany, perhaps, not merely into two, 
but several hostile camps, by which a wide door would 
again be opened for foreign intervention. A powerless 
Central Government ; powerful and mutually jealous 
princes ; half republicanized provinces, inclined to 
attach themselves to France ; on the other hand, pro- 
vinces staunch to their sovereigns, like Pomerania and 
the Tyrol ; political and ecclesiastical parties recipro- 
cating equal hatred, and so well matched in strength 
as to give assurance of a long strife between them, but 
no assurance of victory ; opportunity for individual 
great men, generals especially, to obtain a transient, 
but never a complete and thoroughly comprehensive 
power : such is the state and aspect of things, and it 
strikingly reminds us of the beginning of the Thirty 
Years' War. 

" Or are we to yield to the afflicting thought that, 
after all that has befallen, a return to the old state of 
things is yet possible ? that the German races will 
content themselves with some liberal concessions as to 
internal reform, but give up the idea of unity, or barter 
it away to a new confederation of sovereigns, in ex- 
change for restored order ? To keep down the latent 
strength of Germany has ever since the Congress 
of Vienna been the common and determined policy 
of the foreign powers ; does that policy no longer 
exist, and with what forces do we stand opposed to it ? 

" Freedom alone, not unity, has found among us 
bold and impassioned representatives in sufficient 
number ; and, unfortunately, most of the warmest 
friends of freedom are indifferent to unity, or use 
it only as a pretext and a means for attaining to 
freedom. 

" After all this new great German Be volution was, 
on the whole, but a consequence of the foregone 
movement in France. Should it come to pass that 



268 GERMANY. 

a king were again elected in France, we, too, should 
feel the influence of that event, as half a year ago 
we felt the effect of the conversion of France into a 
republic. 

" Let us confess that the number of warm partisans 
of German unity is small and weak, in comparison 
with those who desire to uphold the interests of the 
great Austrian monarchy by means of the Slavonic 
majority ; and with those who wish to avenge Prussia's 
offended pride and old renown ; and with those who 
long for peace at any price ; and lastly, in comparison 
with the Republicans, to whom the unity of Germany 
is a matter of total indifference, and who would gladly 
sell all Germany to France, if so they might realize 
their communistic democracy." 



DENMARK. 269 



CHAPTER XV. 
DENMARK. 

THE WAR IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 

Upon the death of Christian VIII. of Denmark, 
his son Frederick VII. succeeded to the throne, in the 
beginning of January, 1848. The new monarch's 
first act of sovereignty was to promulgate the project 
of a Constitution for his dominions, and to convoke a 
sort of consultative Assembly, which should elaborate 
the new system. In thus renouncing his absolute 
prerogatives, Frederick VII. acted entirely from his 
own spontaneous impulse. His own states were per- 
fectly tranquil, and Europe w T as not yet agitated by 
the revolutionary movements imparted to it by the 
French events of February. 

A considerable portion of the territories subject to 
the Danish sceptre is held by a peculiar tenure. In 
the north is Denmark Proper, including Jutland and 
the islands, and occupied exclusively by a Scandinavian 
race. In the south are the duchies of Holstein and 
Lauenburg, inhabited by Germans, and belonging to 
the German Confederation. In the middle lies the 
duchy of Schleswig, the population of which is Scan- 
dinavian in the northern portion, German in the 
southern, and mixed in the centre. The numerical 
preponderance is on the side of the Scandinavians or 
Danes, the gross population of the duchy being 
300,000, of whom 200,000 are Danes, and the rest 



270 DENMARK. 

Germans or Friesen. The King of Denmark is Duke 
of Holstein, of Lauenburg, and of Schleswig. Hol- 
stein, it is alleged, is a male fief, and must devolve 
upon the Duke of Augustenburg in the event of 
Denmark passing in the female line to the Prince 
of Hesse-Cassel, the cousin of the present king. This 
event is anticipated with certainty, for Frederick VII., 
though twice married, is childless. 

But it is maintained by the German party that 
Schleswig, though not a member of the German Con- 
federation, nor subject to the German law of inherit- 
ance, must follow the fortunes of Holstein, by virtue 
of certain charters of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
century, whereby it was provided that the two duchies 
should remain for ever inseparable. On the other 
hand it is contended that these charters, if they ever 
existed (for that is even questioned), have been abro- 
gated by conquest and by modern treaties guaranteed 
by England, France, and Russia. The Dukes of Hol- 
stein-Gottorp were constantly involved in hostilities 
against their suzerains, the Kings of Denmark ; and 
during the wars in which the latter were long engaged 
with Germany and Sweden, the former were always on 
the side of their enemies. In consequence of this 
Schleswig was overrun by King Ferdinand IV. of 
Denmark, and the conquered territory, at the conclu- 
sion of peace between Sweden and Denmark in 1720, 
was guaranteed to the King of Denmark and his 
successors, by England and France, as a permanent and 
inalienable possession. 

But Duke Charles Frederick, w r ho, though he had 
lost Schleswig, still retained possession of part of Hol- 
stein, refused to recognise the new state of things ; and 
when, some years subsequently, his son mounted the 
throne of Russia as Peter HI., a Russian army was 
marched against Denmark to maintain the pretensions 
of the tzar to part of Schleswig. These hostilities 



SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN. 271 

were brought to a hasty conclusion by the assassination 
of the unfortunate prince ; and a treaty was concluded 
between Denmark and his successor, Catharine II., 
in 1762, and confirmed by the Emperor Paul in 
1773, in accordance with which the house of Holstein- 
Gottorp (or Holstein-Kiel, as it was now called) re- 
nounced all claims upon Schleswig. 

It is about eight years since the German party in 
Schleswig began openly to agitate the question of 
separation from Denmark, and from that time forth 
the contest has been plied with continually increasing 
acrimony. From their brethren throughout the whole 
extent of the Confederation the separatists received the 
most vehement encouragement. A crusade was preach- 
ed in support of German nationality ; the subject was 
laid before the legislative chambers of several German 
states ; the right of Schleswig-Holstein to unity and 
independence was toasted at public dinners — was sung 
in musical societies — was discussed in scientific assem- 
blies, and maintained in pamphlets innumerable, from 
the pens of the most learned antiquaries. The sove- 
reigns of Germany willingly encouraged their subjects 
in a mania which diverted their attention from domestic 
matters. Besides this, some of the German states 
were actuated by still more direct motives of self-inter- 
est. Prussia especially, which had repeatedly en- 
deavored without success to induce Denmark to join 
the Prussian Customs League, gladly supported a 
movement that tended towards the increase of her own 
maritime power. 

Such was the state of things when the commotion 
following the French Revolution produced its natural 
effect on the course of events in the Duchies. A depu- 
tation was sent to Copenhagen to demand from the 
King a recognition of the separate nationality of the 
two duchies, and of their united incorporation with the 
German Confederation. His majesty replied, that he 



2 "7 2 DENMARK. 

would not offer any hindrance to a more intimate 
alliance of Holstein with Germany, but that he had 
neither the right nor the inclination to sever Schleswig 
from the Danish crown. He desired to maintain its 
indissoluble union with Denmark through a common 
free constitution, and further to secure the well-being of 
the province by extended provincial institutions. 

The arrival of the deputation in Copenhagen hap- 
pened just after the old, inefficient ministry was super- 
seded by an administration composed of men of 
distinguished talent, who had for some years been the 
leaders of the Liberal party in the kingdom. No sooner 
was the change of ministry known in the duchies than 
the leaders of the separatist faction, without waiting for 
the return of their delegates with the King's reply, 
hoisted their flag, and nominated a Provisional Govern- 
ment of their own ; at the same time proclaiming that 
an insurrection had broken out in Copenhagen, and that 
the King being held under restraint, Prince Frederick, 
the brother of the Duke of Augustenburg, was author- 
ized to take command of the duchies in the King's 
name. By this trick the rebels were enabled to gain 
over part of the troops in the duchies, and to get pos- 
session of the fortress of Rendsburg. But the King 
forthwith gave the lie to the idle pretence, by putting 
himself at the head of an army which soon occupied 
the whole of Schleswig ; and the insurrection would 
have been easily suppressed had not the Prussian 
troops, in defiance of the law of nations, crossed the 
frontiers of Holstein on the 6th of April, without any 
previous declaration of war. 

The Frankfort Assembly gave its cordial sanction to 
the step taken by the King of Prussia ; and, in obedience 
to its orders, his army was reinforced by contingents 
from Hanover, Mecklenburg, and Oldenburg. The war 
was universally and immensely popular in Germany. 
Men who agreed in nothing else, united in ardent de- 



THE WAR IN SCHLESWIG. 2*73 

sire for the success of their brethren m Schleswig- 
Holstein, and for the vindication of the sacred cause of 
German nationality. But something less disinterested 
and purely sentimental than national sympathy lay at 
the bottom of this specious enthusiasm. Germany 
was bent on ' having a fleet ! Next to the vision of a 
German empire, that of an imperial German fleet was 
the dream most fondly cherished in the imagination of 
the Teutons. Now, in order to have a fleet it is neces- 
sary to possess a considerable extent of sea-coast, with 
suitable harbors, and a hardy, sea-going population ; 
in all which respects Germany is scantily endowed, but 
with the Duchies in her possession she might do won- 
ders as a madtime power. " Schleswig-Holstein," said 
an article in the Allgemeine Zeitung, of Augsburg, " is 
the handle of the sword which Germany is to throw 
into the scales of Fate in the northern seas. Will she 
look on calmly while it is wrested from her hand V 

Thus, then, on the part of the Germans, the war was 
an affair of unprincipled cupidity, whilst, for the Danes, 
it was one in which they fought for national honor and 
national existence. Denmark possesses a population of 
1,350,000, exclusive of Iceland and the colonies. In 
giving up Holstein, she loses 450,000; if deprived of 
Schleswig, she loses 360,000 more, and must soon be- 
come extinct as a nation. If this be her doom, she will 
at least not fall through the cowardice or supineness of 
her sons. The Danes have displayed a noble spirit in 
their unequal contest with the invader, and their king 
has shown himself worthy of sueh a people. He re- 
nounced the fourth part of his yearly income ; ordered 
the royal plate and medals to be taken to the mint, in 
order to mitigate as much as possible the public burdens 
occasioned by the war; and, after returning from 
Rendsburg to his capital, his first act was to send the 
whole of his guards to the seat of war, and trust him- 
s 12 * 



274 DENMARK:. 

self, without even a sentry at the palace-gates, to the 
love of his subjects. 

Until Schleswig was actually invaded, Denmark for- 
bore to exercise the reprisals with which her fleet enabled 
her to visit Prussia ; and even subsequently she con- 
tented herself with a blockade, not very rigidly enforced, 
and the seizure of some Prussian vessels. She neither 
thought of granting letters of mark nor of attacking the 
enemy's sea-coast towns, — measures authorized by 
Usage, and which would have been especially justifiable 
against a powerful adversary who had taken the field 
wrongfully, and without the regular forms of war. 
Before the actual commencement of hostilities, it was 
hoped for a while, at least in Denmark, that the ques- 
tion would be settled by negotiation, for the plenipo- 
tentiaries of the belligerents were to meet in Hamburg 
on Easter Monday (24th April). In consequence of 
this expectation, Hedemann, the Danish commander-in- 
ehief, had positive orders to avoid an engagement ; 
but, on Easter Sunday, he was attacked in his position, 
near Schleswig, by the Prussian general Wrangel, and 
26,000 Germans. The Danish troops were not more 
than 11 ,,000; yet, notwithstanding the surprise, and 
their inferiority in numbers, they made an intrepid 
stand, and did not give way until after eight hours 7 
fighting. 

The Danish commander now adopted a system of 
tactics suited to the peculiar nature of the territory. 
Had he remained on the mainland he would have been 
compelled to recede before General Wrangel, until, 
perhaps, he would have been forced into a corner of 
Jutland, from whence there was no escape, and suffered 
a final defeat, which would have made the Prussians 
masters of the province. Hedemann, therefore^ with- 
drew into the islands of Alsen and Funen, the former 
©£ which lies about two hundred and fifty yards off the 



THE WAR IN SCHLESWIG. 275 

eastern coast of Schleswig, and is separated by the 
Little Belt from the larger island of Funen ; and this 
again is separated by the Great Belt from Zealand, in 
which stands Copenhagen. The effect of this manoeuvre 
was to make Wrangel divide his forces, a part of 
which marched without opposition into Jutland, and 
imposed a contribution of 440,000/. on that province. 
His abundant means of transport by sea rendered it 
easy for General Hedemann to concentrate all his forces 
in a few hours, either in Funen in order to make a 
descent on Jutland, or in Alsen, whence he might fall 
upon Schleswig ; whilst Wrangel's forces, on the other 
hand, were divided into two bodies, placed at several 
days' march asunder. After making a feint of attack- 
ing Jutland from Funen, Hedemann suddenly fell back 
upon Alsen, and made a descent on Schleswig. The 
two armies were in sight of each other when the news 
arrived from Copenhagen that the Prussians had 
evacuated Jutland in consequence of the remonstrance 
made by the powers friendly to Denmark. It was not 
possible, however, that the two armies should quit each 
other's presence without an engagement. It took place 
on the 28th of May, and ended advantageously for the 
Danes. 

Several encounters subsequently took place between 
the belligerents, but without any very decisive results. 
Meanwhile negotiations for a peace were pending. 
Sweden had given early intimation that she would 
consider an invasion of Jutland as dangerous to the 
independence of her own dominions. When the oc- 
cupation took place, the Swedish fleet approached the 
theatre of war, and landed an army on the Danish 
islands, whilst a more considerable force was concen- 
trated in the Swedish province of Scania. Russia 
adopted the same policy, and a Russian fleet was sent 
to cruise in the Danish waters, under the command of 
the Archduke Constantine. A hint, too, is said to have 



276 DENMARK. 

been given from St. Petersburg, that the renunciation 
of the Emperor Paul to the portion of the duchies he 
inherited, was made in favor of the royal house of 
Denmark alone, and that consequently, should that 
house be dispossessed or become extinct, the rights of 
Russia would revive. 

England, whose mediation had been solicited by both 
parties, proposed an armistice on the 18th of May. 
The terms were disapproved of by Prussia, and hostili- 
ties were continued until the 29th of June. Sweden 
then tried her hand, and the preliminaries of an 
armistice were arranged at Malmoe, in Scania, and 
promptly acceded to by Prussia and Denmark. Europe 
looked upon the affair as ended ; but when the two 
envoys met at Colding, on the 15th of July, to arrange 
ulterior measures, the Prussian announced with sur- 
prise to the no less astonished Dane the positive 
refusal of General Wrangel to fulfil the convention 
signed and ratified by his Government. He dis- 
approved of many of the conditions ; and, moreover, he 
alleged that the ratification could not be valid without 
the sanction of the Regent of the German Empire. 

Denmark did not at once resume active hostilities ; 
but she increased the strictness of the blockade, extend- 
ing it to the mouths of the Elbe and the Weser, to the 
great detriment of the trade of Hamburg and Bremen. 
And now France sent in a note to Berlin and Frank- 
fort, referring to the treaty of 1720, and' expressly 
recognising the guarantee she had given for the rights 
of Denmark in Schleswig. Prussia yielded at last, and 
a convention was definitively concluded at Malmoe on 
the 26th of August, by which an armistice was estab- 
lished for seven months, as more fully stated in the 
preceding chapter. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 277 



CHAPTER XVI. 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

THE INVASION PANIC THE CHARTIST MOVEMENTS THE IRISH 

REBELLION THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT COMMERCIAL VI- 
CISSITUDES — FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

[The following chapter is reprinted entire from Mr. W. 
Kelley's History of the year 1848. It has been thought best 
to present an Englishman's view of English affairs during that 
eventful year.] 

The domestic annals of the British Empire for the 
year 1848 are rather of a negative character. We have 
not been revolutionized ; we have not suffered any vast 
national calamity; but neither have we made any 
marked progress in the way of national health, wealth, 
and contentment. We began the year with a strange 
panic apprehension of foreign invasion. An old letter 
of the Duke of Wellington's, painfully exposing the 
unprotected state of our coasts, and the general ineffici- 
ency of our National defences, was published in The 
Chronicle, on the 8th of January, and forthwith there 
arose throughout the length and breadth of the land 
an affrighted cry for more fortresses, guns, soldiers, 
ships, and sailors. The Ministry blandly assented to 
the patriotic call, and we were in a fair way to see the 
whole island belted with bomb-proof masonry, bristling 
w r ith implements of war ; but the magnificent concep- 
tion was smothered in the birth by vulgar consi derations 
of cost. The proposed addition of two per cent, to the 



278 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

income-tax fell like a wet blanket on our martial ardor, 
and we resolved unanimously to go on encountering 
the old risks in the old way, rather than pay so heavy 
a premium for additional insurance. 

We can afford to smile now at the false fears that 
then possessed us ; but there is no need that we should 
give them up to unmitigated ridicule. They were 
erroneous in their direction, but that was all. We had 
sagacity enough to apprehend the approach of some 
stupendous commotion, but not enough to forecast its 
precise nature. When it came at last, and we could 
make out visibly what manner of thing it was, we knew 
better how to deal with it. Attempts were made in 
England and Ireland to parody the revolutionary feats 
of the Continent ; but the failure in both instances was 
total and ludicrous. 

The stability of the British Constitution was tried in 
the metropolis on the 10th of April. On that day, a 
great public meeting was appointed to be held on 
Kennington Common, whence 200,000 men were to 
march to Westminster, present a petition to Parliament 
for the Charter, and " wait for an answer !" The in- 
tention was obviously to effect a revolution by the 
summary process which had prevailed in most of the 
capitals of Europe ; and it was confidently predicted by 
the orators of the Chartist Convention then sitting in 
London, that the Charter would be the law of the land 
before bedtime on the 10th of April. The Charter 
might or might not be a good thing ; that was a ques- 
tion on which two opinions might be fairly entertained : 
but that an organized mob should be allowed to take 
possession of the centre of the metropolis and make 
capture of the Legislature, was a matter that admitted 
not of a moment's controversy. So said and thought 
the vast majority of the population, and they took such 
ft course as demonstrated, once for all, that they would 
jiot submit to the usurped sovereignty of a casual moU, 



THE CHARTIST MOVEMENTS. 279 

The preventive measures of Government, devised and 
personally worked by the Duke of Wellington, were on 
a, large and complete scale, though so arranged as not 
to obtrude themselves needlessly on the view. The 
Thames bridges were the main points of concentration ; 
bodies of foot and horse police, and assistant masses of 
special contables, being posted at their approaches on 
either side. In the immediate neighborhood of each 
of them, within call, a strong force of military was kept 
ready for instant movement. Two regiments of the 
line were kept in hand at Milbank Penitentiary ; 1200 
infantry at Deptford Dockyard, and thirty pieces of 4 
3ieavy field-ordnance at the Tower, all ready for trans- 
port by hired steamers, to any spot where serious busi- 
ness might threaten. At other places also bodies of 
troops were posted, out of sight, but within sudden 
command. 

In addition to the regular civil and military force, it 
Is credibly estimated that at least 150,000 special con- 
stables were sworn and organized throughout the me- 
tropolis, for the stationary defence of their own districts, 
or as movable bodies to co-operate with the soldiery 
and police. On the other hand, the muster on the Com- 
mon fell far short of the grand number predicted. The 
•whole gathering did not exceed 20,000, one-half of whom 
were spectators, led to the spot by mere curiosity. The 
-"Chartists submitted quietly to their defeat ; the detached 
rolls of their monster petition were despatched in hack- 
ney-cabs to Westminster ; the crowd broke up, and after 
-some slight combating, in which no serious casualty 
occurred, it was manoeuvred into detailed masses and 
quietly dispersed ; and the day of intended revolution 
ended in a gossiping wonderment. 

Two months afterwards the leaders of the violent 
section of the Chartists began again to trouble the 
public peace. Numerous riots, some of them attended 
<with loss of life, took place in Scotland and in the mid- 



230 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

land counties of England ; and open-air meetings were 
held in the metropolis, in which language of the most 
incendiary kind was uttered by Messrs. Ernest Jones, 
Williams, Sharpe, Vernon, Looney, and Fussell, the last 
of whom strenuously recommended the expedient of 
private assassination. They were all brought to trial 
for these offences, convicted, and sentenced to two 
years' imprisonment, and to find recognisances for their 
future good behavior. Subsequently the police detected 
a widely-ramified conspiracy to effect a simultaneous 
^rising in London, Manchester, and other towns, and' to 
burn, slay, and pillage in all directions. Cuffay, Lacey, 
and Fay, the metropolitan ringleaders, were transported 1 
for life, and a great number of the other conspirators- 
were subjected to various degrees of punishment. 

The Irish rebellion, heralded by far more boisterous 
and truculent boastings than the Chartist plot, failed 
still more ignominiously. Newspapers had been 
founded for the avowed purpose of openly preaching 
treason, and teaching the art of street>fighting, with 
the most ingenious devices for maiming and torturing- 
troops by means of vitriol, bottles turned into hand- 
grenades, and other missiles. War-clubs were every- 
where established, whole cargoes of fire-arms were 
imported and sold by auction in the fairs and markets, 
all the smiths in Ireland were at work, night and day, 
manufacturing pikes, and nothing less was talked of 
than a levy en masse of the Celtic population to exter- 
minate the Saxon intruders, Mr. Smith O'Brien, Mr. 
Meagher, and Mr. (^Gorman went to Paris to solicit 
French aid. On the 3d of April they waited on 
Lamartine with congratulatory addresses from various 
bodies of Irish, but received from the foreign minister 
of the Republic a reply that effectually extinguished all 
their hopes of support from that quarter. Returning' 
to Ireland, Messrs. O'Brien and Meagher were in the 
following month tried for sedition ; but the juries wouM 



THE IRISH REBELLION". 2'81 

not agree to a verdict in either case. Mr. Mitchell, the 
editor of the famous war-journal, the Nation, was not 
so fortunate ; he was found guilty, and shipped off to 
Bermuda under sentence of fourteen years' trans- 
portation. 

Still the Confederates continued their sanguinary 
ravings, and the preparations for rebellion went on 
with unabated activity, Lord Clarendon calmly and 
steadily watching the conspirators, and noiselessly 
providing means to render their folly innocuous. The 
Legislature* had strengthened his hands by an act sus- 
pending the right of Habeas Corpus in Ireland, and 
by other enactments suited to the state of a country 
on the eve of a rebellion. At last the leaders of the 
Irish Confederation took the field. Messrs. O'Brien, 
Doheny, Meagher, and Dillon, the two former dressed 
in gorgeous uniforms, threw themselves among the 
colliers of Tipperary, and summoned them to the 
destruction of the infamous old English empire. A 
single battle began and ended the campaign. On 
Saturday, July 29, Mr. O'Brien and some thousand of 
his followers were ignominiously beaten by less than fifty 
policemen, who had posted themselves in the widow 
M'Cormack's house at Boulagh. Seven of the insur- 
gents were killed, and many wounded ; and so ended 
the Irish Rebellion of 1848, crushed at a blow, and 
without the aid of one soldier of the line, by a small 
party of men of the same creed, race, and station as 
the rebels themselves. O'Brien, Meagher, M'Manus, 
and O'Donohue, fell into the hands of the authorities, 
were tried at Clonmel, and were sentenced on the 9th 
of October to death for high treason. A writ of error 
was entered for each of the convicts ; and while it was 
pending it became known that in any event the 
Government would not enforce the full sentence of the- 
law. 

The Parliamentary session which began on the 1 8t& 



282 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

of November, 1847, and terminated on the 5th of 
September, 1848, was one of unexampled length, but 
of little practical efficiency. Its chief produce was a 
set of coercive and penal acts for the better enabling 
of the Executive to curb disaffection, but the list of its 
enactments tending to any positive improvement was 
so brief as to be almost nugatory. Parliament was 
summoned at an unusually early period to consider and 
counteract the commercial distress that so heavily 
affected the country ; but the violence of the crisis was 
over before members could come together, and the 
proposed inquiry was dropped, the country was left to 
take its chance of another panic, and nothing was done 
to secure a permanently safer condition of commercial 
-affairs. The case was just the same with every other 
great question that was pressed upon the consideration 
of the Legislature : in all but two or three instances of 
no great moment, the decision was postponed to the 
next session. 

The commercial vicissitudes of the British Empire 
•during 1848 were remarkable, but not so extreme as 
those of the preceding year. In 1847, the range of 
fluctuations in Consols was full 15 per cent., been 
greater than had been known for eighteen years, and 
also considerably exceeding the range during the 
respective years of the declaration of war against Great 
Britain by the French Convention, the first Bank sus- 
pension, the Irish Rebellion, and the battle of Waterloo. 
In 1848, it was 10 per cent. ; namely from 90 to 80, 
which is quite equal to what, on the average, took 
place on the above-mentioned occasions. In January, 
■Consols opened at 85 ; they crept up steadily to 90, 
when the shock of the French Revolution made them 
fall instantly 10 per cent. ; but the panic was only 
momentary ; and none of the subsequent convulsions 
of the Continent had power to disturb our money- 
market in anything like the same degree. It lias been 



THE SPANISH QUARREL. 283 

pointed out as a fact pregnant with lessons of prudence 
of the highest national importance, that the financial 
consequences of the railroad mania of 1846-7 were 50 
per cent, more serious than the financial consequences 
of a twelvemonth of revolution. 

The part played by Great Britain in the agitated 
politics of the Continent has been confined to friendly 
mediation, more zealous than successful. In Spain our 
well-meant counsel has been rejected with a wantonness 
of insult which is likely, sooner or later, to work out its 
own punishment. Alarmed at the arbitrary and vio- 
lent proceedings of the Narvaez Administration in a 
period of general disturbance, Lord Palmerston thought 
it advisable to instruct our Ambassador " to recommend 
earnestly to the Spanish Government and the Queen- 
Mother, if" he had " an opportunity of doing so, the 
adoption of a legal and constitutional government of 
Spain." It must be remembered that Queen Isabella 
owed her throne chiefly to the aid afforded her by 
Great Britain, and that she held the British Govern- 
ment bound by treaty to support her against all 
pretenders. Now, an insurrection which put the 
monarchy in peril took place in Madrid on the 23d of 
March ; the measures taken in consequence by the 
Government were of a nature to alarm our ambassador ; 
he remonstrated against them, but finding that his 
advice made no impression, he backed it by the pro- 
duction of Lord Palmerston's despatch, for reasons 
which he thus explains : — 

" It began to be very probable that Count Monte- 
molin might show himself, supported by the liberal 
party, and with the cry of the Constitution of 1812 ; 
— this was here canvassed on one side, a Republic on 
the other. Now, if the Pretender raised his banner, 
proclaiming constitutional principles, and we were 
called upon to support Queen Isabella, her Catholic 
Majesty upholding military government, it would bs 



284 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

difficult for us to support the military government 
against the constitutional one, or to desert Queen 
Isabella suddenly, on the ground that we disapproved 
of the course she had pursued, unless there was some 
proof that we had so disapproved. My unofficial con- 
versations had no authority. Even if her Catholic 
Majesty fell, without exposing us to this difficult and 
particular question, it might be said, ' Why did not 
Mr. Bulwer warn the Spanish Government of the 
dangerous course they were pursuing ? Why did he 
not do so with all the weight that a formal communi- 
cation of the views of Great Britain would have 
afforded V It was, my Lord, in view of all these 
various probabilities, that I gave the sanction of your 
Lordship's name and of my own opinion to the advice 
I presumed to offer. It was not, that I am aware of, 
couched in improper terms. I did not, therefore, 
expect a violently hostile reply, or that the present 
Government of Spain would involve amongst Queen 
Isabella's enemies her Majesty's Government, with 
more than the precipitancy with which it had included 
in this category distinguished and loyal Spaniards. 
The result shows I was mistaken." 

Sir Henry Bulwer was mistaken, because, in his 
political calculations, he had not taken sufficient 
account of the ignorance of the Spanish Government, 
who imagined that England was in the throes of revo- 
lution, and that the Chartists and the Irish Confederates 
would soon make wild work in the land. Our Ambas- 
sador's note was returned to him, with an insolent 
reply, and soon afterwards his passports were sent him, 
and he was dismissed the country. Had such an 
affront been put upon us by a first-rate power, war 
would have ensued, but Spain was safe in her insig- 
nificance. Our only revenge was to suspend all diplo- 
matic intercourse with her, and leave her perverse 
rulers to the justice of their countrymen. Whatever 



* COLONIES. 285 

be the effect on Spain of the severance of the alliance, 
to us the result can be nothing but gain. 

The chances of this eventful year have brought our 
mismanaged colonies no relief for their chronic mala- 
dies. We have had one of our costly little border 
wars in the Cape colony ; we have put down and 
punished with barbarous severity an insurrection in 
Ceylon, which we had provoked by our misgovern- 
ment ; and we are now engaged in a sanguinary war 
in the Punjab, where the whole Sikh race has risen in 
insurrection against us.* 

* The reader will bear in mind that the above was written 
in the early part of the present year. Our prescribed limits in 
this publication would of course be transcended, if we were to 
do more than simply allude to the triumph of the British arms 
in the recent wars in India. 



APPENDIX. 



The year 1848 will be ever marked in the history of the 
world as the year of Revolutions. The events of 1849 may 
be regarded as the falling of the curtain after the dramatic 
scenes of that wonderful year. 

In France, little of a revolutionary character has occur- 
red. Her interference in Italian affairs has been justly 
reprobated throughout the civilized world. On the 13th of 
June occurred the most formidable insurrection of the year, 
but the troops proved faithful to the government, and it was 
speedily put down. 

Italy. The political condition of this country seems 
likely to be restored to what it was two years ago. After 
an obstinate and gallant resistance to French intervention, 
Rome was obliged to yield to superior discipline, and on the 
3d of July Gen. Oudinot led his victorious army into the city 
of the Caesars. Venice, too, after a struggle which won 
the admiration of the world, was forced to submit to an un- 
conditional surrender of her forts, arsenals arms, etc. 

The Lombardo — Venetian kingdom, is secured to the 
house of Austria. Such is the termination of that noble 
struggle maintained by the Venetians for so many months. 
Their valor and persevering efforts seemed to have deserved 
a better fate ! Of their conduct throughout the trying 
scenes of the contest, it may be said that it was stained by 
none of those crimes which add to the evils of civil war. 

Germany. The prospect of German confederation seems 
to have totally disappeared. As the German sovereigns, 
especially the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia, 
began to regain their former authority, the weight of the 
Frankfort Assembly or Parliament visibly declined. Their 
numbers gradually diminished, and thus passed away the 
fondly cherished project which was to exalt the German 
name. 

Austria. There can be nothing justly said to palliate 
the policy of Austria in her relations with Hungary. Her 



conduct has been selfish, her pretences hollow, and her con- 
cessions unwillingly made. 

On the 13th of August the Hungarian army closed a 
valiant, but unsuccessful, struggle by an unconditional sur- 
render. Previous to this it appears that Kossuth, sensible 
of the desperate condition of affairs, resigned all power into 
the hands of Arthur Georgey, who forthwith surrendered 
and claimed that his pity for his distracted country induced 
the act. Kossuth and his companions escaped into the 
Turkish dominions, where he is still held as a prisoner, 
although nominally under the protection of the Sultan. 

Denmark. There is something wholly unprecedented in 
the situation of this little country, which though reckoning 
hardly 2,000,000 inhabitants, has been able to defend itself 
very logically in its diplomatic notes, and afterwards very 
heroically both by land and by sea, against a nation of 
40,000,000 souls. The armistice with Prussia took place 
en the 17th of July. 



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